Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Prevention in a Pill? Baldness drug might avert prostate cancer
The drug finasteride, given to alleviate baldness and prostate problems, might prevent some cases of prostate cancer.
- Earth
Germs Begone: New technology cleans dangerous water
For a penny per liter, people in the developing world should be able to remove most pathogens and toxic pollutants from their home drinking water.
- Animals
African cicadas warm up before singing
The first tests of temperature control in African cicadas have found species with a strategy that hogs energy but reduces the risk of predators.
- Earth
Lead delays puberty
Even low concentrations of lead in a girl's body may delay her reproductive maturation.
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Calling out the cell undertakers
Dying cells secrete chemicals that attract other cells that specialize in disposing of cellular corpses.
- Paleontology
Alaska in the ice age: Was it bluegrass country?
At the height of the last ice age, northern portions of Alaska and the Yukon Territory were covered with an arid yet productive grassland that supported an abundance of large grazing mammals, fossils suggest.
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- Humans
From the June 24, 1933, issue
LIGHTNING Lightning, most awesome of the spectacular forces of nature, has yielded some of its mystery to science. But not all. We no longer credit it, as did our ancestors, to an angry Zeus or an impetuous Thor. Since Ben Franklin flew his adventurous kites, nearly two centuries ago, we know it is “made of […]
- Earth
Meteorite Crater
The Barringer Crater in Arizona is one of the more famous geological sites on Earth. This Web site recounts the history and science of the crater’s formation 50,000 years ago and provides information about its discovery, its purchase by D.M. Barringer, and its current status. Go to: http://www.barringercrater.com/
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Attack of the cannibalistic bacteria
When nutrients are low, some members of a bacterial species will cannibalize other members.
- Math
Prime-Time Cicadas
Cicadas are flying, plant-eating insects. Most cicada species have life cycles that span 2 to 8 years. They spend most of their lives underground before emerging as adults. In a few species, almost all the individuals in a given location come out of hiding at the same time. These are known as periodical cicadas, and […]
- Earth
Spawning Trouble: Synthetic estrogen hampers trout fertility
Exposure to a synthetic estrogen called ethynylestradiol, which is commonly found in birth control pills and enters the waterways through sewage effluent, reduces male trout’s fertility by half.
