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Materials Science

Scientists tone down silicon rockers

Researchers have created pairs of silicon atoms that stay level instead of slowly rocking in place, permitting scientists to study silicon-surface reactions in unprecedented detail.

Earth

A slump or a slide? Density decides

Using a full-scale simulator, researchers showed that just a small difference in soil density determines whether a landslide becomes a fast-moving killer or merely one that slowly slumps downhill.

Paleontology

Listening to fish for extinction clues

Tiny fossils from fish that survived worldwide extinctions about 34 million years ago may reveal that cooler winters caused the die-off.

Health & Medicine

Fetal cells pop up in mom’s thyroid

A woman's thyroid gland contains male cells, suggesting that cells from her son passed into her when he was a fetus.

Health & Medicine

Gene helps alcohol help the heart

A genetic study indicates that moderate consumption of alcohol helps keep the heart healthy.

Health & Medicine

Pill boosts cancer risk in some women

Women who took oral contraceptives before 1975, and whose mother or sister had breast cancer between 1944 and 1952, have triple the likelihood of getting breast cancer as compared with similar women who didn't take the pill.

Health & Medicine

Interferon delays multiple sclerosis

In some people who show early-warning signs of multiple sclerosis, the drug interferon-beta-1a seems to delay or even prevent the disease from becoming full-blown.

Archaeology

Agriculture’s roots go tropical

Tropical-forest dwellers in Central America may have cultivated manioc and other root crops as many as 7,000 years ago.

Archaeology

Early farmers crop up in Jordan

An ancient site discovered in southern Jordan dating back more than 9,000 years may help to illuminate the origins of farming in the Middle East.

Astronomy

X-Ray Visionary

Proposed observatory would image black holes and coronas of nearby stars.