Uncategorized
- Animals
Scent Stalking: Parasitic vine grows toward tomato odor
A wiry orange vine finds plants to raid for nutrients by growing toward their smell. With video.
- Health & Medicine
Mixed Bag: Islet-cell transplants offer good and bad news
Most people who've received transplanted islet cells for type 1 diabetes still need daily insulin shots, but the transplanted cells curb blood sugar crashes.
- Earth
Gassy Bugs: Microbes may produce propane under the sea
Microbes deep under the ocean's floor could be the source of some ethane and propane found in sediments.
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Montessori Learning Aid: Alternative school shows impact on poor children
An alternative teaching program known as the Montessori method gave an academic and social boost to Milwaukee youngsters that did not occur in their peers attending other schools.
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19736
I was surprised you didn’t mention the effect of salinity in ocean water in this article. Warming climate has melted much of the glaciers, bringing fresh water into the North Atlantic. That water isn’t dense enough to sink and carry on the conveyor belt that usually brings warm currents from the tropics. This slowing of […]
- Earth
Mystery of the Missing Heat: Upper ocean has cooled slightly in recent years, despite warming climate
Between 2003 and 2005, the top layers of the world's oceans cooled slightly, but scientists aren't sure where the heat went.
- Health & Medicine
The Bad Fight: Immune systems harmed 1918 flu patients
The 1918 Spanish flu virus may have launched an intense immune attack that devastated patients' lungs.
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19735
The experiments with mice infected with the 1918 influenza virus are important but not surprising. John Barry’s The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (2004, Viking) explains that many, perhaps most, of the victims were killed by the overreaction of their immune systems. This may be why most of the […]
- Physics
Hot Stuff: A usually ultracold, odd state forms when warm
An exotic quantum state that had previously appeared only under conditions of astonishing cold has made its room-temperature debut.
- Humans
Good Gone Wild
New research shows that the ecotourism model of raising conservation awareness while protecting indigenous cultures doesn't always work out as planned.
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19734
I was extremely disappointed to read the definition of ecotourism as being “the practice of visiting sites where exotic landscapes and rare animals are the main attractions.” Ecotourism was founded with the specific goal of countering the overuse of the kind of travel described in the article. A better definition would be one used by […]
- Chemistry
Catalyst cleans up
A new chemical catalyst can remove the pollutant perchlorate from water.
