Uncategorized
- Physics
Light shines in quantum-computing arena
A new computing scheme using available technology and only classical physics appears to handle many tasks that researchers thought would be unsuited to any computers except the still-hypothetical ones that would exploit quantum physics.
- Earth
They’re not briquettes, but they’ll do
Chunks of fossil charcoal found in ancient sediments in north central Pennsylvania suggest that cycles of wildfire plagued Earth more than 360 million years ago.
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To save gardens, ants rush to whack weeds
Ants can grow gardens, too, and the first detailed study of their weeding techniques shows that whether a gardener has two legs or six, the chore looks much the same.
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Anticancer Protein Locks onto DNA
The protein encoded by the normal form of BRCA1 attaches to DNA directly, seeks out unusual DNA structures, and joins multiple DNA strands together—all activities suggesting a direct role in DNA repair.
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Lyme ticks lurk on golf course edges
At least half the ticks collected along woodsy edges of five golf courses in Rhode Island carry the baterium that causes Lyme disease.
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How spiny lobsters make scary noises
Spiny lobsters make alarm and protest sounds by drawing their leathery plectra—protrusions at the base of each anntenna—across scaley ridges below their eyes, much like a violin bow pulling across a string.
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Here come mom and dad
Children in two-parent families spend more time with their mothers and fathers now than they did 20 years ago.
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Brains show evolutionary designs
Mammal species exhibit basic types of brain design from which they have evolved a wide array of brain sizes, according to a new analysis.
- Astronomy
Free-floaters: Images of planets?
Several recent studies have escalated the debate about what exactly constitutes a planet.
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Please explain a curious statement in “A more perfect union.” The article paraphrases Jonas Sandstrom of Uppsala University in Sweden as suggesting that an “endosymbiont’s isolation may be a one-way ticket to extinction. Once the bacterium loses genes . . . it has no way of getting them back. It can’t, therefore, evolve away from […]
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A More Perfect Union
Forsaking life in the outside world, endosymbiotic bacteria of some insects traded freedom and nutrients for life inside a cell.
- Chemistry
Cosmic Chemistry Gets Creative
By simulating extraterrestrial impacts on Earth, researchers are firing away at the question of how life started.
