Uncategorized
- Physics
Superconductor has odd electron pairing
Although electrons pair up in many superconductors, there's one in which they join together in two different ways, new calculations confirm.
- Animals
Blame winter for the vanishing sparrows
Changes in winter farming practices may help explain a puzzling drop in number of rural house sparrows in southern England.
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Hear, hear: Key ear part regenerates
Hairlike projections that allow ears to detect sounds regenerate every 2 days.
- Physics
Clues to exotic particles found again
Although a correction to theory last year watered down its results, further analysis of a muon experiment still provides hints of new subatomic particles.
- Earth
Uncertainty returns over sex-change fish
Scientists question whether a potentially gender-bending hormone found in polluted Florida streams is responsible for masculinized female fish.
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Grief travels different paths
A rare study of elderly individuals before and after the death of their spouses finds that a surprisingly large number stayed on an even emotional keel.
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Rather than early exposure to pets preventing allergies, I suspect that families who have allergies may generally tend to avoid having pets in the home because they cause physical discomfort to allergy sufferers. Terry LeeYerington, Nev.
- Health & Medicine
Pet exposure may reduce allergies
Exposing children to cats or dogs at an early age may make them less prone to allergies later in life.
- Anthropology
Gene change hints at brain evolution
A genetic mutation found only in humans first appeared around 2.8 million years ago, perhaps setting the stage for brain enlargement in the Homo lineage.
- Tech
Pocket Sockets
Keenly aware of user frustration with the short-lived batteries in cell phones and other portable electronics, researchers are rushing to work out the bugs in tiny fuel-cell power plants that will be as small as batteries—but last a lot longer and be refuelable.
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Your article brought to mind how this affects me. I’m a firefighter, so prone to sleep deprivation. I have noticed that when sleep patterns are repeatedly interrupted by emergency calls, I tend to be more susceptible to illness. This is anecdotal but seems to hold true for my colleagues and me. Ryan SmithForest Grove, Ore. […]
- Health & Medicine
Missed ZZZ’s, More Disease?
New evidence suggests that chronic lack of sleep may be as important as poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the development of chronic illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
