Left-Handed Amino Acid Puzzle Remains
July 28, 2012
A new suggestion of how life ended up with left-handed amino acids comes up short.
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Dark Matter Remains Missing
July 21, 2012
The most sensitive test to date for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) has turned up nothing.
Our Poisonous Moon: Better from a Distance
July 13, 2012
The moon stabilizes Earth's axis and regulates the tides, but enjoy it from a distance. Now there are more reasons you wouldn't want to live there.
Maple to the Rescue
July 11, 2012
The SWAT team surrounds the compound. An officer tosses a maple seed into an open window and checks the readout on his computer. The team bursts in and, surprising the terrorists, rescues the hostages safely.
Stellar Dust Disk Vanishes in 3 Years
July 7, 2012
According to widely accepted theory, planets evolve from orbiting dust disks surrounding stars. If so, planets trying to form in the dust around one young star didn't have much time. The disk evaporated within 3 years.
Animalympics
July 3, 2012
As summer Olympics season approaches, we should remember that we humans are not the only ones with some amazing physical abilities.
Scientific Markers Can Mislead
June 26, 2012
In historical sciences, observable phenomena are often used as indicators of past phenomena. Some recent examples show how these can mislead researchers.
Beethoven Rolls Under Darwin
June 18, 2012
Beethoven may indeed be rolling in his grave, but not for the reasons some Darwin-loving reporters think.
Too Hot to Handle: Io and Enceladus
June 12, 2012
Two moons in the solar system are turning up the heat on beliefs that they could be billions of years old.
Astronomers Wrestle with "Endless Mysteries"
June 3, 2012
Some of the biggest questions in the universe remain completely baffling to astronomers, a leading journal admitted.
Geology Can Be Explosively Rapid
June 1, 2012
When people hear of "geologic time," they are trained to think of millions of years. Big things can happen in far less time.
Doomed Worlds: Planets Seen Disrupting, Not Forming
May 23, 2012
Much as astrobiologists would like to see the birth of a new planet, the ones we observe seem to be dying, not being born.
Crater Count Dating Still Unreliable
May 22, 2012
Worries about the crater count dating method, widely relied upon to infer ages of planetary surfaces, began emerging in 2005. Those worries have not subsided; they have only grown worse. Crater numbers may have nothing to do with age.
Earth's Magnetic Field Less Sustainable than Thought
May 17, 2012
Geophysicists have found that their favored dynamo theory for Earth's magnetic field is less stable than thought, leaving them wondering how our planet sustained its magnetic field for "geologic time."