Uncategorized
-
19168
I found this article quite fascinating. In 1973, my colleagues and I showed that rats would respond with the future in mind. Specifically, rats will make a response that results in one immediate electric shock, as long as that punished response is instrumental in avoiding five identical shocks programmed to occur 10 seconds later. It […]
By Science News - Ecosystems
Trust That Bird? A bit of future-think lets jays cooperate
A blue jay will cooperate with a buddy for mutual gain in food despite opportunities to betray the partnership.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Dust Up: Office bustle launches anthrax spores
The commotion of everyday business in indoor spaces contaminated with anthrax can launch the bacterium's dangerous spores into the air.
By Ben Harder - Planetary Science
Martian History: Weathering a new notion
Researchers suggest that intermittent impacts by huge asteroids and comets some 3.5 billion years ago profoundly influenced the landscape of Mars.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
First-Line Treatment: Chronic-leukemia drug clears a big hurdle
In its first large-scale test on newly diagnosed leukemia patients, the drug imatinib—also called Gleevec and STI-571—stopped or reversed the disease in nearly all patients receiving it.
By Nathan Seppa - Physics
Identity Check: Elusive neutrinos morph on Earth, as in space
Strengthening a challenge to the prevailing theory of particle physics, measurements of elusive particles called antineutrinos from nuclear reactors suggest that no neutrino types, be they matter or antimatter, have stable identities.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Visionary science for the intestine
A tiny disposable flash camera that a person swallows can detect problems in the small intestine.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Bone scan reveals estrogen effects
Using a scanning technology called microcomputerized tomography, scientists have a new way to look at the difference between bone exposed to estrogen and bone deprived of it.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Common antibiotic may cure river blindness
Tests in cows suggest that tetracycline might kill the tiny worm that spreads river blindness, a disease that infects about 18 million people.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Satellite links may don quantum cloaks
A theoretically foolproof scheme to shield secrets via the laws of quantum mechanics demonstrates its readiness to take on Earth-satellite communications.
By Peter Weiss -
19167
Just because chemical equipment can measure parts per trillion doesn’t necessarily mean that they have any biological significance. If you took one pill of Tylenol and dissolved in an olympic-size swimming pool, that would roughly be 1 part per billion. One part per trillion would be one pill in 1,000 swimming pools. My point is […]
By Science News - Earth
Excreted Drugs: Something Looks Fishy
Drugs that the body can't fully use enter waste water, where they may affect aquatic life—or wind up in tap water.
By Janet Raloff