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Tech
Outsmarting the Electronic Gatekeeper: Code breakers beat security scheme of car locks, gas pumps
Because designers flouted a well-known rule for making cryptographic systems impenetrable, automakers and other businesses have embraced a wireless security technology that's vulnerable to attack.
By Peter Weiss -
Animals
Bad Breath: Insects zip air holes to cut oxygen risks
The need to avoid overdosing on oxygen may drive certain insects to shut down their breathing holes periodically.
By Susan Milius -
Materials Science
Petrified wood: Quick and easy
Materials scientists have turned wood into stone in a matter of days, mimicking a natural process that takes millions of years.
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Health & Medicine
There’s the Rub: Football abrasions can lead to nasty infections
U.S. football players who get scrapes and cuts from playing on artificial turf sometimes develop bacterial infections that are resistant to some antibiotics.
By Nathan Seppa -
A Bug’s Life: E. coli can’t escape old age
Bacteria that divide symmetrically, once thought to be functionally immortal, may age and die just like other organisms do.
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Health & Medicine
When Ebola Looms: Human outbreaks follow animal infections
A network of organizations in an African region prone to Ebola epidemics has identified the virus in wild-animal remains prior to two recent human outbreaks, suggesting that animal carcasses may provide timely clues that could prevent the disease from spreading to people.
By Ben Harder -
Astronomy
Puny Parent? Planets may form around tiny orbs
Barely more massive than a planet itself, a tiny failed star 500 light-years from Earth is nonetheless cloaked in a disk of gas and dust from which planets may coalesce.
By Ron Cowen -
Health & Medicine
Disease Detector: Chemical test may spot Alzheimer’s
A new test that detects very low levels of protein clumps associated with Alzheimer's may provide an early warning for the disease.
By David Shiga -
Humans
Letters from the February 5, 2005, issue of Science News
Not measuring up I love Science News. Now and then, however, you write in terms that aren’t understandable to the average reader. I refer in particular to “Snow Blow: Image of Mount Everest from orbit captures enormous plume” (SN: 12/4/04, p. 358). It states that “weather models suggest winds atop the peak exceeded 50 meters […]
By Science News -
Tech
Detecting life on Mars
A new device could look for life on Mars by analyzing the geometric traits of amino acids in soil.
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Drugs lengthen worm’s life span
A class of antiseizure drugs significantly extends the life span of roundworms, a finding that could lead to better understanding of factors that influence aging in people.
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Earth
Ice age hit Missouri 2.4 million years ago
Analyses of a soil sample from central Missouri suggest the date of onset of North America's most recent spate of ice ages.
By Sid Perkins