Uncategorized
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Animal Origins: Genome reveals early complexity
Analysis of DNA from a choanoflagellate, the closest known living nonanimal relative of animals, allows scientists to infer the genetic starter kit possessed by the first animal.
- Paleontology
Flying Deaf? Earliest bats probably didn’t echolocate
Fossils of a cardinal-sized creature recently unearthed in western Wyoming suggest that primitive bats developed the ability to fly before they could track their prey with biological sonar.
- Health & Medicine
Caffeine intake tied to miscarriage
Intake of caffeine equal to two cups of coffee per day seems to double a woman's risk of miscarriage.
- Humans
Heed your elders, survive a tsunami
An oral tradition passed down among islanders in the South Pacific saved many lives during a tsunami last year and illustrates the benefits that community-based education and awareness programs can provide.
- Tech
Nanocrystal
Researchers have used DNA as Velcro to create the first materials that spontaneously assemble into regular 3-D patterns.
- Animals
Bird fads weaken sexual selection
There's a new look for a hot male among lark buntings every year.
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More evidence that flies sleep like people
A brain chemical puts fruit flies to sleep.
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19926
This article was wonderful. We have had light and electron microscopes. Can we look forward to atom-wave microscopes? Bill SchindeleThousand Oaks, Calif. Yes. A team led by Bodil Holst at Graz University of Technology in Austria has built a microscope that bombards a sample with helium waves and then measures how the waves reflect to […]
- Physics
Extreme Measures
Physicists use atom interferometry to measure gravity and other forces with unrivaled precision, and the technique could potentially guide airplanes and uncover buried caches of oil and diamonds.
- Health & Medicine
Weighty Evidence
Connections between the family of insulin hormones and cancer have been suspected for more than 2 decades, and today, drug companies are testing anticancer drugs based on the actions of an insulin cousin.
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- Humans
Letters from the February 16, 2008, issue of Science News
Inert placebo? Regarding “Getting the Red Out” (SN: 1/19/08, p. 35): While drug companies wish to market their products, my attention is drawn to the fact that 1 in 8 of the control group of psoriasis patients was cured by placebo effect. Who will investigate the process therein? Is there a market for it? Carson […]
