Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Danish sustainability: From coats to undies
The United Nations climate change conference may be over, but Denmark’s interest in climate-protection issues isn’t. Case in point: an exhibit at the Danish Design Center. Across the street from Copenhagen’s famed Tivoli Gardens, local fashion-design students are showcasing their idea of another type of greens – fashion-forward clothes that are kind to Mother Nature.
- Health & Medicine
Texting and driving don’t mix, just as suspected
Sending or receiving messages proves even worse than cell phone calls for young adults on simulators.
- Life
Lupus not identical in twins
Differences in DNA methylation may account for why one sibling gets the autoimmune disease while the other stays healthy.
- Chemistry
Climate deal reached, importance debated
“Finally, we sealed the deal. And it is a real deal,” said United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon this morning at an 11:15 press briefing. He was referring to a new climate accord – one aimed at reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions and setting up a green trust fund for mitigation and adaptation programs in the world’s poorest countries, ones that are already being hammered by a changing climate.
- Climate
Climate: Deal or no deal?
We’ve got a climate accord, President Barack Obama said at a parting press conference tonight (at about 11 to 11:30 p.m. local time, before leaving Denmark). Not so fast, argue a number of other negotiating blocs...like the G77.
- Health & Medicine
2009 Science News of the Year: Nutrition
Natural vanilla extract comes from pods (shown), but most vanillin is synthesized in the lab. Credit: De-Kay/istockphoto That yeast smells good Yeast has long been pressed into service for making beer and bread. Now the fungus has been tapped for a loftier flavor: vanillin, vanilla’s dominant compound (SN: 5/23/09, p. 9). Natural vanilla comes from […]
- Health & Medicine
2009 Science News of the Year: Body & Brain
Numbers of passengers arriving from Mexico in March and April 2008 show which cities would have been most vulnerable to H1N1 transmission. Credit : The New England Journal of Medicine ©2009 H1N1 strikes and spreads Like the years 1957 and 1968, 2009 will be known as a pandemic flu year. The springtime eruption of a […]
- Humans
2009 Science News of the Year: Humans
An artist’s illustration shows how a female Ardipithecus may have looked. An analysis of Ardi’s bones, uncovered from 1992 through 1997, was released this year. Credit: J.H. Matternes Ardi puts new spin on hominid evolution A 4.4-million-year-old partial female skeleton discovered in Africa, along with fossils from at least 36 of her comrades, provide the […]
- Health & Medicine
Darker liquor, never sicker
People report feeling worse the next morning after drinking bourbon than after drinking vodka.
- Humans
2009 Science News of the Year: Science & Society
Activists plead for a new agreement during the 2007 U.N. Climate Change Conference. Credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images Leaders warm to climate action Throughout the year, global leaders used various summits around the world to declare their intention to take firm, though often unilateral, action to reduce their nations’ carbon footprints. In December, negotiators from more […]
- Climate
Climate: China defends its reputation
Over the past few days, a number of national delegations – not least the United States’ – have criticized implicitly, if not explicitly, China’s unwillingness to accept binding limits on its greenhouse-gas emissions and the measurement of emissions by outside auditors. This morning, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao addressed a plenary meeting of the United Nations climate-change conference – populated by more than 100 heads of heads of state – to make his case that China has embarked on an earnest step toward substantive climate protection.
- Climate
Obama: Climate’s rock star
A little over a half-hour ago, President Barack Obama wrapped up a stirring pep talk to his fellow world leaders attending the United Nations climate change meeting. He didn’t promise the world. Only that the United States could be depended upon to do its part in helping stem global greenhouse gas emissions and to fund measures that would help fund the world’s poorest and climate-beleaguered nations adapt. But what was especially interesting was to watch how the whole climate conference has waited with baited breath to learn what Obama would say: Could our President make promises that would at last galvanize action in the United States and accord among countries whose views, even yesterday, seemed poles apart?
