Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Sun, inflammation speed aging of skin
Gene profiles show inflammation is the key to making skin age, and sun exposure speeds the process.
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New dating finds oldest coral yet
A sample of a black coral from a depth of 400 meters turns to be 4,200 years old.
- Earth
Dioxin’s long reach
Breast development is delayed in teenage girls who were exposed to the organic pollutant dioxin in the womb and in their mothers' breast milk.
- Tech
Diamond detectors
The quantum states of single diamond impurities work as magnetic sensors that could enable nuclear magnetic resonance to detect single atoms.
- Ecosystems
Predators return
Warming waters could push new predators into Antarctica's delicate ecosystems.
- 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.
- 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.
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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.
- Math
A Mathematical Tragedy
Sophie Germain had a bold program to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, but it was doomed to fail.
- 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? […]
- 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.
