Uncategorized
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Ecosystems
Predators return
Warming waters could push new predators into Antarctica's delicate ecosystems.
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Agriculture
Resistance to Bt crops emerges
Resistance to pest-killing cotton crops is spreading among one species of caterpillar, but techniques to prevent the spread of resistance appear to be working for five other species.
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Gene variants shield against depression
Some child-abuse victims possess specific variations in a stress-regulating gene that decrease their likelihood of developing moderate or severe depression as adults, a research team reports.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
Nurturing Our Microbes
Nurturing the microbes living in the human body can pay dividends—from shortening the length of colds to fighting obesity and osteoporosis.
By Janet Raloff -
Micromanagers
Some scientists believe the human brain is the creation of RNA. Only noncoding RNAs are plentiful, and powerful enough to handle the billions of complex interactions the brain faces every day.
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Math
A Mathematical Tragedy
Sophie Germain had a bold program to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, but it was doomed to fail.
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Humans
Letters from the March 1, 2008, issue of Science News
Big evolvers Regarding “Whales Drink Sounds: Hearing may use an ancient path” (SN: 2/9/08, p. 84), I have heard that whales evolved millions of years ago into their present form, including their very large brains. We humans must be relatively recent in terms of our brain structures. Are there data concerning evolutionary development in whales? […]
By Science News -
Math
An Attack on Fermat
The first female research mathematician had a program to solve Fermat's Last Theorem, and it was almost lost to history.
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Astronomy
New Worlds Atlas
Keep track of the ever-expanding list of newly discovered planets orbiting distant suns at PlanetQuest 2.0, a revamped Website developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It has images, “planet system visualizations,” movies and games that simulate interstellar exploration, and even lets you install a desktop planet counter so that your computer always displays the latest […]
By Science News -
Humans
From the February 19, 1938, issue
A rough, tough charioteer from ancient Sumer, Americans' poor eating habits, and digging up an early industrial town.
By Science News -
Internet Seduction: Online sex offenders prey on at-risk teens
Most online sex crimes involve adults seducing psychologically vulnerable teenagers into sexual relationships, a finding at odds with public fears of Internet-using children falling prey to deceptive, violent sexual predators.
By Bruce Bower -
Earth
Defining Toxic: Federal agencies look to cells, not animals, for chemical testing
Government scientists are collaborating to shift the testing of potentially toxic chemicals away from animals to methods that use high-speed automated robots, which should generate data relevant to humans faster and more cheaply than current methods.