3,878 results
- Health & Medicine
Orexin-blocking pill speeds sleep onset
A new compound that inhibits the activity of the alertness-promoting brain peptide orexin shows promise as a potential sleeping pill.
- Archaeology
Dawn of the City
A research team has excavated huge public structures from more than 6,000 years ago in northeastern Syria, challenging the notion that the world's first cities arose in the so-called fertile crescent of what's now southern Iraq.
- Physics
Extreme Measures
Physicists use atom interferometry to measure gravity and other forces with unrivaled precision, and the technique could potentially guide airplanes and uncover buried caches of oil and diamonds.
- Astronomy
Sputnik + 50
The launch of Sputnik 1, 50 years ago, ushered in a scientific and technological revolution, but dreams of the human conquest of space have faded.
- Humans
Letters from the May 12, 2007, issue of Science News
Saw right through it E. Fred Schubert and his colleagues are to be congratulated for developing an improved antireflective coating (“The New Black: A nanoscale coating reflects almost no light,” SN: 3/3/07, p. 132). But the coating would not make a lens “absorb” more light. Rather, it would help the lens “propagate” the light. Nathaniel […]
- Agriculture
Big footprints
Livestock production carries surprisingly high, and largely hidden, environmental costs.
- Earth
Hey, What about Us?
The plight of polar bears may get most of the attention as climate change disrupts the Arctic ice, but plenty of other species, from walrus and seals to one-celled specks, are also going to see their world change radically.
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Best Friend’s Genome: Dog’s DNA sheds light on human genetics, too
Scientists have published the genome of a boxer, a detailed comparison of the dog's genome with the genomes of mice and people, and a study of genetic variation among dog breeds.
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19748
I am amazed that this article concluded that “Scientists have a long way to go to explain why” prey animals play dead. As a veterinarian, I have learned that there are separate centers in the brain dealing with predatory behavior and with hunger. The effect seems to be that predatory behavior, by itself, is satisfying, […]
- Ecosystems
Tortoise Genes and Island Beings
Geneticists and conservation biologists are joining forces to untangle the evolutionary history of giant Galápagos tortoises and to safeguard the animals' future.
- Animals
Flea treatment shows downside of social life
The flealike parasites that build up in a shared burrow take an unexpectedly large toll on the ground squirrel's reproductive success.
- Humans
Letters from the December 23 & 30, 2006, issue of Science News
Playing dead is a lively topic I am amazed that “Why Play Dead?” (SN: 10/28/06, p. 280) concluded that “Scientists have a long way to go to explain why” prey animals play dead. As a veterinarian, I have learned that there are separate centers in the brain dealing with predatory behavior and with hunger. The […]
