Uncategorized
- Anthropology
Neandertals return at German cave site
Researchers who tracked down the location of a German cave where the first Neandertal skeleton was discovered in 1856 have unearthed new Neandertal finds.
By Bruce Bower - Astronomy
Magnetars: A missing link
A rare group of ultradense stars may be magnetars, objects with the strongest magnetic fields known in the universe.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
RNA interferes with cancer-cell growth
To curb the growth of cancer cells, scientists are silencing genes by introducing small strands of RNA.
By John Travis -
19128
Perhaps much of the controversy about evolutionary psychology devolves from forgetting some basic biological definitions. The gene is the unit of inheritance, which has a complex and imprecise relationship with the mature, viable organism that has inherited it. The unit of evolution is the individual organism. Therefore, the arguments about what is more important in […]
By Science News -
Evolutionary Upstarts
Theories of the evolution of the human mind are evolving, with some researchers now presenting alternatives to the dominant notion that genetic competition for survival during the Stone Age yielded brains stocked with a bevy of instincts for specific types of thinking.
By Bruce Bower - Plants
The Wood Detective
Alex Wiedenhoeft belongs to the elite profession of wood identifier, the person to call when a crime investigator, museum curator, archaeologist, or patent attorney with an unusual client really needs to know what that splinter really is.
By Susan Milius - Physics
Neon gives healthy glow to reactor
Preferring neon to nicotine, magnetic-fusion reactors called tokamaks get a performance boost from puffs of the noble gas.
By Peter Weiss - Physics
Photon-in-a-box slings atom into orbit
A single photon confined to a tiny, mirror-lined cavity becomes electrically strong enough to swing an atom in loops.
By Peter Weiss - Earth
Ice age forest spruces up ecology record
Scientists have recently discovered a 10,000-year-old forest buried in the sand in Michigan.
- Earth
Undersea volcano: Heard but not seen
The search is on for an undersea eruption near the Japanese volcanic island chain.
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Wash that mouth out with bacteria!
Genetically engineered bacteria may stop tooth decay by replacing the ones in the mouth that destroy tooth enamel.
By John Travis -
Over there! Eat them instead!
An ant will ignore a single golden egg bug and attack a mating pair, a choice that may explain why singles hang around pairs.
By Susan Milius