Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Gamma-ray craft plunges into Pacific
As planned, NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which had detected some of the highest-energy radiation in the universe for 9 years, crashed into the Pacific Ocean on June 4.
- Astronomy
Stars’ wobbles reveal six more planets
Swiss astronomers have found indirect evidence of six additional planets that lie outside the solar system, bringing the tally to more than 40.
- Animals
Sibling Desperado: Doomed booby chick turns relentlessly violent
The first known case among nonhuman vertebrates of so-called desperado aggression—relentless attacks against an overwhelming force—may come from the underling chick in nests of brown boobies.
- Health & Medicine
Huntington’s Advance: Drug limits disease effects in laboratory mice
A compound that inhibits enzymes that act as stop signs for genes counteracts the movement disorders brought on by Huntington's disease, a mouse study suggests.
- Tech
Light Splash: Transparent pipes shape microstructures
A new technique using fluid dyes in microplumbing to create miniature fluid-carrying chips improves the 3-D topography of these microstructures and makes that topography relatively easy to modify.
- Materials Science
Natural Healing: Nanothread mesh could lead to novel bandages
A new material made from clot-promoting protein fibers may serve as a wound covering that speeds healing and never needs removing.
- Health & Medicine
Montezuma’s Welcome Revenge? Bacterial toxin may fend off colon cancer
A diarrhea-inducing toxin from some strains of the common gut bacterium E. coli stifles colon cancer cell growth and may lead to new treatments.
- Earth
Dirty Story: Farming has increased flow of soil onto reef
Agricultural practices that early European settlers brought to eastern Australia sped the pace at which soil washes out to sea and settles over the Great Barrier Reef.
- Astronomy
Cosmic Revelations: Satellite homes in on the infant universe
A new portrait of the infant universe pins down the age of the universe—13.7 billion years—to an unprecedented accuracy of 1 percent, provides new evidence that the universe began with a brief but humongous growth spurt, and reveals that it already contained a plethora of stars when it was just 200 million years old.
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Gene found key to brain chemical
The mammalian brain makes the neurotransmitter serotonin in an unexpected way.
- Health & Medicine
Worms offer the skinny on fat genes
The identification of worm genes that regulate fat storage may provide insight into human obesity.
- Astronomy
Starry eruption on a grand scale
Monitoring the bloated star Rho Cassiopeiae, astronomers report they witnessed an explosion that blasted more material into space than any other stellar explosion ever observed.
