Uncategorized
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Clearing Up Blurry Vision: Scientists gaze toward causes of myopia
Scientists are beginning to unravel the genetic mechanism that causes nearsightedness.
By Carrie Lock -
Archaeology
Mexican murals store magnetic data
Tiny magnetic particles in the pigments of some Mexican murals recorded the direction of Earth's magnetic field when the paint dried.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
Protective enzyme has a downside: Asthma
The abnormal production of a parasite-fighting enzyme contributes to asthma.
By John Travis -
Watching the biological clock
Biologists now have a way to predict when a woman will start menopause.
By John Travis -
Archaeology
Rat DNA points to Pacific migrations
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA from Pacific rats supports a theory that ancestors of today's Polynesians migrated from Southeast Asia to a string of South Pacific islands in at least two separate dispersals.
By Bruce Bower -
Earth
Warmer climate, decreased rice yield
Agricultural data gathered over a dozen years at a Philippines rice paddy suggest that climate changes brought about by global warming could significantly diminish rice yields.
By Sid Perkins -
Materials Science
DNA coordinates assembly of glassy nanoscale structures
Chemists use DNA as a scaffold to construct miniature rings and rods out of silica.
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Health & Medicine
Caloric threats from sugarfree drinks?
Regularly downing sweet drinks or sugar substitutes may foster overeating by reprogramming an individual's ability to judge a snack's caloric impact.
By Janet Raloff -
Astronomy
Controlling the speed of solar eruptions
The billion-ton blobs of magnetized gas that the sun sporadically hurls into space can't reach Earth in less than half a day.
By Ron Cowen -
Dying before Their Time
Genetically engineered mice that get prematurely old give hints to the causes of aging.
By John Travis -
19437
The teardrop shape of Venus away from the centermost part of the sun simply is caused by the photographic surface being planar, rather than spherical. The image can never be represented without distortion for the same reason that the globe can’t be represented without distortion on a flat map. Robert P. Kelso San Marcos, Texas […]
By Science News -
Astronomy
Heavenly Passage
On June 8, the black dot of Venus passed across the face of the sun, the first time it did so in 122 years.
By Ron Cowen