Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Comet LINEAR: Breaking up isn’t hard to do
New images reveal that Comet LINEAR, which passed near the sun late last month, has broken into at least 10 fragments.
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Depression may play a role in stroke risk
Feelings of hopelessness and other signs of major depression markedly raise a person's likelihood of suffering a stroke.
- Physics
Attractive atoms pick up repulsive habits
Rubidium atoms intrinsically attract each other, but new experiments near absolute zero have induced the atoms to repel each another instead.
- Earth
Wildfires spread across a parched West
Dozens of lightning-sparked wildfires seared the western United States last week, adding hundreds of thousands of acres of charred terrain to a tally that promises to make this fire season the worst in recent decades.
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Ibuprofen cuts Alzheimer protein build-up
The common nonprescription drug ibuprofen may lessen abnormal accumulation of beta-amyloid in the brain, perhaps explaining how the drug decreases the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
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Cleft-lip mutations may hinder virus
Having identified the mutated gene responsible for a syndrome involving cleft lip or palate, a research team finds that the recessive mutation also may confer an antiviral advantage to people who carry one copy of this gene.
- Chemistry
Ribosomes Reveal Their RNA Secrets
The first atomic-resolution map of a ribosome, a cell's protein factory, suggests that RNA catalyzes the formation of proteins.
- Math
Constructing Domino Portraits
In 1840, the Danish artist Christian Albrecht Jensen (1792–1870) was commissioned to paint a portrait of the renowned mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855). This portrait, showing Gauss at the venerable age of 63, went on display at the Pulkowa Observatory in St. Petersburg, Russia, where it remains to this day. That painting of Gauss has […]
- Tech
Liberty’s smooth move
Sensors clamped to the Liberty Bell's crack show that it could handle the stress of a move.
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Putting Out the Welcome Mat: Chemical guides germ cells to gonads
A chemical made in the gonads attracts the embryonic cells that will one day form eggs or sperm.
- Health & Medicine
Deadly Stowaways: Seeds of cancer in transplant recipients are traced back to donors
Precancerous cells that grow into Kaposi's sarcoma are sometimes introduced into a person in an organ transplant.
- Anthropology
Cannibalism’s DNA Trail: Gene may signal ancient prion-disease outbreaks
Cannibalism among prehistoric humans may have left lasting genetic marks.
