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Chemistry
Air knocks the wind out of nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes are very sensitive to oxygen, an effect that could limit their use in open-air applications.
By Corinna Wu -
Chemistry
Heat spurs growth of tiny carbon trees
Microscopic carbon forests can grow on a graphite surface without the help of catalysts.
By Corinna Wu -
Health & Medicine
Coagulation factor XI boosts clot risk
People who have had a major blood clot in a vein are roughly twice as likely to harbor high concentrations of blood coagulation factor XI as people who haven't.
By Nathan Seppa -
19124
Your story didn’t surprise me. I doubted it the first time I saw it. When I read the original story (“Might night-lights blight sight?” SN: 5/29/99, p. 351), I said, “Wait a minute! Wouldn’t that mean that children raised north of the Arctic Circle should have unusually high levels of myopia?” Did the researchers involved […]
By Science News -
Health & Medicine
Myopia link to night lights doubted
Two studies cast doubt on the apparent link between night lights in a baby's nursery and an increased risk of being nearsighted later in childhood.
By Nathan Seppa -
Astronomy
X-ray telescope vanishes
Astro-E, a Japanese X-ray observatory, fell back to Earth and burned up just after launch on Feb. 9.
By Ron Cowen -
Planetary Science
Unveiling Mars’ watery secret
A new gravity map of Mars has revealed a network of buried channels that billions of years ago may have been on the surface and helped carry water to fill an ancient ocean.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Craft spies new class of gamma-ray sources
Roughly half the 120 unidentified sources of high-energy gamma-ray emissions in the Milky Way—those at midgalactic latitudes—may comprise a new class of objects and originate from a belt of massive stars that lies only a few hundred light-years from the solar system.
By Ron Cowen -
Agriculture
Toxic bugs taint large numbers of cattle
U.S. cattle have dramatically higher rates of infection with a virulent food-poisoning bacterium than had been realized, a factor that leads to widespread carcass contamination during slaughter.
By Janet Raloff -
Hungry spiders tune up web jiggliness
Octonoba spiders tune the sensitivity of their webs according to how hungry they are.
By Susan Milius -
Tech
Coming soon: Knavish electromagnetic acts
Scientists have created a device with bizarre electromagnetic properties—but so far, only at microwave frequencies.
By Peter Weiss -
Health & Medicine
Pig-cell grafts ease symptoms of Parkinson’s
Pig brain cells transplanted into the brains of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease help some of the patients regain mobility and the ability to do basic tasks.
By Nathan Seppa