Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Prion Proof? Evidence grows for mad cow protein
Misfolded proteins known as prions can cause disease when injected into the brains of genetically engineered mice.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
EPA to fine DuPont over ingredient in Teflon
The Environmental Protection Agency says it may levy a fine surpassing $300 million against DuPont for concealing evidence that it was contaminating the environment with perfluorooctanoic acid.
By Ben Harder -
Brain development disturbed in autism
A brain-imaging study suggests that autism is characterized by disturbances in the development of the amygdala and the hippocampus, two inner-brain structures.
By Bruce Bower - Paleontology
Early life forms had a modular structure
Fossils recently discovered in northeastern Newfoundland reveal that some of Earth's earliest large organisms had modular body plans whose main architectural element was a branching, frondlike structure.
By Sid Perkins -
19450
This is the most amazing paleontological article I think I have ever read. You state calmly that these “Canadian fossils are the oldest known examples of large, multicellular creatures” and that this type of creature “doesn’t appear to be related to any organisms that have lived since.” Would you please follow up on this discovery […]
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Dentists: Eschew chewing aspirin
Chewing aspirin or just letting the tablets dissolve in the mouth can seriously damage teeth.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
PCBs can taint building caulk
Long-banned, toxic polychlorinated biphenyls in some building caulk applied in the 1960s and 1970s may still pose an exposure risk.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Birthing age and ovarian cancer risk
Giving birth confers on women some protection against ovarian cancer, and the later in life the last pregnancy happens, the better the protection.
By Nathan Seppa - Anthropology
Chimps mature with human ancestor
The Stone Age human ancestor Homo erectus grew at about the same pace as wild chimpanzees today do.
By Bruce Bower - Astronomy
Cassini eyes Iapetus
Only a few days after it entered orbit around Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft captured an image of Saturn's split- personality moon Iapetus.
By Ron Cowen -
19449
Your article says that sunspots are 3,500°C. Yet further in the article, it says that the solar flare of Nov. 4, 2003, was 41 million°C. Is that a typographical error? Bruce BarnbaumGranite Falls, Wash. That’s no typo. The release of magnetic energy in the sun’s atmosphere during a flare heats the material that’s been ejected […]
By Science News - Earth
Parting Shots
Data collected during an 18-day barrage of major solar flares late last year—including a record-setting coronal mass ejection on Nov. 4—will help scientists refine models of flare formation and behavior.
By Sid Perkins