Uncategorized
- 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.
- 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.
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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.
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Bacteria make locust-swarm signal
A pheromone that helps drive locusts into a swarm comes from bacteria in their gut.
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What’s learning to a grasshopper?
Learning the taste of nutritious food pays off in a boost to fitness, even for a grasshopper.
- Agriculture
Apple pests stand up to antibiotics
Scientists are concerned about new forms of antibiotic resistance cropping up in fire blight—a deadly disease of apple trees.
- Agriculture
Cocoa yields are mushrooming—downward
A mushroom epidemic in Brazilian cacao trees, which has cut the production of cacao by 25 percent in 5 years, may be treatable with another fungus.
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It occurs to me that the techniques described in this article could have a wide variety of applications outside the biological sciences. For example, imprinted high-temperature ceramic materials could be used as less-expensive catalysts in automobiles and factory emission-controls systems. And filters made from such materials might be used to greatly reduce the quantity of […]
- Chemistry
Molecules Leave Their Mark
A material etched with tiny, carefully shaped pores can act like an artificial enzyme, cell membrane, or receptor.
- Earth
Plants seen as unpredictable carbon sponge
Changing land-use practices—especially in forests, croplands, and fallow areas—appear to play a far bigger role than anticipated in determining how much carbon gets removed from the air by vegetation.
