Uncategorized
- Plants
Dawn of the Y: Papaya—Glimpse of early sex chromosome
Genetic mappers say that the papaya plant has a rudimentary Y chromosome, the youngest one in evolutionary terms yet found, offering a glimpse of the evolution of sex chromosomes.
- Planetary Science
Spirit Gets Its Wheels Dirty: Mars rover begins scientific work
Spirit, the rover that landed on Mars on Jan. 3, last week began studying the rocks and soil at its landing site.
- Health & Medicine
Cluster Buster: Might a simple sugar derail Huntington’s?
A study in mice with a disease resembling Huntington's shows that a simple sugar impedes the protein aggregation that kills brain cells.
- Physics
Wet ‘n’ Wild
Scientists have tracked the weirdness of water to microscopic arrangements of molecules and perhaps to the existence of a second, low-temperature form of the familiar substance.
- Paleontology
L.A.’s Oldest Tourist Trap
Modern excavations at the La Brea tar pits are revealing a wealth of information about local food chains during recent ice ages, as well as details about what happened to trapped animals in their final hours.
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19372
John Harris is quoted as saying that the absence of opossums is a “curious exception” to the list of current mammals of the Los Angeles Basin preserved in the La Brea tar pits. But the presence of opossums on the West Coast is well documented to be very recent. All current California opossums derive entirely […]
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Reef Relations
The discovery of humanlike genes in coral means that the common ancestor of both humans and coral was more complex than previously assumed.
- Health & Medicine
Viruses depend on shocking proteins
To replicate within a cell, a bird virus must force the cell to make certain proteins.
- Health & Medicine
Drugs slow aging in worms
Drugs that defuse so-called free radicals lengthen a worm's life span by more than 50 percent.
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Whatever that is, it’s scary
Tammar wallabies that have lived away from mammalian predators for more than 9,000 years still seem to recognize the appearance of danger.
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Kookaburra sibling rivalry gets rough
The youngest kookaburra in the nest doesn't have a lot to laugh about.
- Astronomy
Gang of four: Debut of a big telescope
In the desert of northern Chile, a fourth 8.2-meter telescope opened for business, completing a quartet known as the Very Large Telescope.
