6,745 results
- Chemistry
Delivering the Goods
Experimental gene-delivery therapies generally use viruses to shuttle genetic material into cells, but some researchers are devising ways to avoid using the sometimes-risky viruses.
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How the Butterfly Gets Its Spots
The spots on a butterfly wing turn out to be unusually good model systems for a range of disciplines from genetics to behavioral ecology, offering biologists a chance to paint the really big picture of how evolution works.
- Anthropology
Evolution’s Surprise: Fossil find uproots our early ancestors
Researchers announced the discovery of a nearly complete fossil skull, along with jaw fragments and isolated teeth, from the earliest known member of the human evolutionary family, which lived in central Africa between 7 million and 6 million years ago.
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Red Snow, Green Snow
It's truly spring when those last white drifts go technicolor as algae bloom in the snow.
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- Materials Science
Steely Glaze: Layered electrolytes control corrosion
Experiments with ultrathin organic coatings applied to steel suggest a new technique for slowing corrosion.
- Math
Tilt-A-Whirl Chaos (I)
Tilt-A-Whirl. Sellner Manufacturing Co. Schematic drawing (top view) showing the Tilt-A-Whirl’s geometry. Much of the fun of an amusement park ride results from its stomach-churning, mind-jangling unpredictability. The Tilt-A-Whirl, for example, spins its passengers in one direction, then another, sometimes hesitating between forays and sometimes swinging abruptly from one motion to another. A rider never […]
- Archaeology
Almond Joy, Stone Age Style: Our ancestors had a bash eating wild nuts
New finds at a 780,000-year-old Israeli site indicate that its ancient residents used stone tools to crack open a variety of hard-shelled nuts that were gathered as a dietary staple.
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Get Rid of the Bodies
Scientists are learning how organisms safely clear out cell corpses.
- Anthropology
Southern Reindeer Folk
Western scientists make their first expeditions to Mongolia's Tsaatan people, herders who preserve the old ways at the southernmost rim of reindeer territory.
- Earth
Why the Mercury Falls
Certain pollutants can foster the localized fallout of mercury, a toxic heavy metal, from the atmosphere.
