Beyond Fossil Fuels
Finding New Ways to Fill the Tank
By MATTHEW L. WALD
A new federal agency is financing attempts to find a renewable replacement for gasoline and diesel fuel, like a new liquid fuel or a much better battery.
Palliative Care Extends Life, Study Finds
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Patients with terminal lung cancer who had palliative care with oncology treatment lived three months longer.
News Analysis
Doubt on Tactic in Alzheimer’s Battle
By GINA KOLATA
The failure of a promising Alzheimer’s drug highlights the gap between diagnosis and treatment.
Science Times: Aug. 17, 2010
Scans have produced "millions of points of information" and a wealth of three-dimensional images, said a research coordinator of the restoration.
Restorers are spending $10 million to make the world’s last surviving wooden whaling vessel, the Charles W. Morgan, seaworthy.
Step 1: Post Elusive Proof. Step 2: Watch Fireworks.
By JOHN MARKOFF
A claimed proof for one of the most vexing mathematical problems, P versus NP, set off shock waves online, demonstrating the potential of Web-based collaboration.
Looking This Way and That, and Learning to Adapt to the World
By CHARLES Q. CHOI
Eye-tracking studies suggest that infants may be more capable of understanding and acting on what they see than had been thought.
Repair Made, Space Station Heads Back to Normal
By KENNETH CHANG
With a replacement cooling pump successfully installed, the International Space Station’s electrical systems were largely expected to be returned to the usual configuration by Aug. 17.
More Science News
Drilling Permits for Deep Waters Face New Review
By JOHN M. BRODER
The Obama administration said it would require more review before approving offshore drilling permits, ending a practice in which regulators essentially rubber-stamped projects.
Questions Linger as Shrimp Season Opens in Gulf
By SHAILA DEWAN
As the Louisiana white shrimp season opened, consumer confidence was the biggest issue facing the industry.
San Cristóbal De Rapaz Journal
High in the Andes, Keeping an Incan Mystery Alive
By SIMON ROMERO
A town in the Andes has one of the last known collections of khipus — weavings that may explain how the Incas ruled without a written language — still in ritual use.
Fly Fishers Serving as Transports for Noxious Little Invaders
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Growing scientific evidence suggests that felt, which helps anglers stay upright on slick rocks, is also a vehicle for microorganisms that hitchhike to new places and disrupt freshwater ecosystems.
Health News
Moose Offer Trail of Clues on Arthritis
By PAM BELLUCK
Research on moose suggests that arthritis in human beings may be linked in part to nutritional deficits.
Well Column
Vaccination Is Steady, but Pertussis Is Surging
By TARA PARKER-POPE
Pertussis, better known as whooping cough, is making an alarming comeback - even among adolescents and adults who were vaccinated as children.
Essay
Coping With Crises Close to Someone Else’s Heart
By HARRIET BROWN
We’ve come to understand ways people deal with personal crisis, but psychologists are just beginning to explore the ways we respond to other people’s traumas.
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Old Maxim of Fertility and Stress Is Reversed
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Steep Drop Seen in Circumcisions in U.S.
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Global Update: Cancer: Expert Panel Calls for Aggressive Fight Against Cancer in Poorer Countries
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Vital Signs: Hazards: Nipple Piercings Add to Risk of Abscesses
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Vital Signs: Risks: A Warning on Asthma and Acetaminophen
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Vital Signs: Patterns: Medicare Coverage Drives Antibiotic Use
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Vital Statistics: Who Visits the Emergency Room? 20 Percent of Americans, Insured or Not
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San Cristóbal De Rapaz Journal: High in the Andes, Keeping an Incan Mystery Alive
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Panel Urges Hudson Cleanup Be Improved and Extended
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Exclusive Golf Course Is Organic, So Weeds Get In
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Looking This Way and That, and Learning to Adapt to the World
Multimedia
The Wonderful World of Sea Slugs
Photographs from Terry Gosliner's expedition to the Philippines to look for colorful sea slugs called nudibranchs.
Timeline
Interactive Feature: Building Smarter Machines
As computers grow ever smarter, a look at developments in the field of artificial intelligence.
Interactive Feature: On Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’
Evolutionary biologists and historians of science comment on Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”
Readers' Photos
Readers’ Ugly Animal Photos
Some animals provoke in us a reflexive ugh, yuck or eeww. They are, to put it bluntly, ugly animals. Our readers sent in their best shots.
Oil Plumes May Be Worse Than Thought
August 18, 2010
Reprieve for a Russian Seed Bank?
August 18, 2010
Rescued Turtles Go Free in Gulf
August 18, 2010
Opinion
Dot Earth Blog
Climate Extremes: Beyond Loaded Dice
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
A climatologist proposes a new way to convey how a warming climate will affect extreme weather.
Podcast: Science Times
David Corcoran, a science editor, explores some of the topics addressed in this week’s Science Times.
Science Columns
Observatory
To Enjoy Champagne, Treat It Like Beer, Study Says
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Champagne may be a symbol of life at the top, but it is best poured into a tilted glass just like that other sparkling beverage.
Observatory
Wide Variety of Breeds Born of Few Genes
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
A new study reports that the physical variance among dog breeds is determined by differences in only about seven genetic regions.
Observatory
A Reason for Diversity of Ants May Not Hold
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Many species of nocturnal velvet ants in the southwestern United States emerged long after the deserts they inhabit, new research indicates.
Q & A
A Calcium Quandary
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY
Do vitamin C and calcium in milk cancel each other’s benefits?
Wordplay Blog
Numberplay: The Relativity of Probability
By PRADEEP MUTALIK
A set of simple problems to show the fickleness of estimating probabilities and the subtlety required to get them right.
Health Columns
Personal Best
When Repeat Injuries Can’t Dim an Athlete’s Passion
By GINA KOLATA
Despite strains, fractures and tears, we keep going, switching sports or even doctors. At least one expert would say we stubborn athletes have a psychological problem.
Personal Health
Out of Grief Sprouts a Life-Saving Legacy
By JANE E. BRODY
At any given time in the United States, more than 100,000 people are waiting for donor organs, more than 10 times as many as become available even though almost anyone can donate.
Really?
The Claim: More Sugar Leads to More Cavities
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
Sugar and cavities go hand in hand. But the amount of sugar you eat has less impact on cavities than way you consume it.
MOST POPULAR - SCIENCE
- A Quest to Make the Morgan Seaworthy
- Step 1: Post Elusive Proof. Step 2: Watch Fireworks.
- Looking This Way and That, and Learning to Adapt to the World
- Green: Delusions Abound on Energy Savings, Study Says
- Fly Fishers Serving as Transports for Noxious Little Invaders
- Observatory: To Enjoy Champagne, Treat It Like Beer, Study Says
- Restoring the Last Wooden Whaler
- Q & A: A Calcium Quandary
- Observatory: Wide Variety of Breeds Born of Few Genes
- Readers’ Ugly Animal Photos
- Step 1: Post Elusive Proof. Step 2: Watch Fireworks.
- A Quest to Make the Morgan Seaworthy
- Delusions Abound on Energy Savings
- Looking This Way and That, and Learning to Adapt to the World
- For Lean Budgets, a Plug-and-Play Solar System
- Oil Plumes May Be More Toxic Than Thought, Scientists Warn
- Q & A: A Calcium Quandary
- In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming
- Observatory: Wide Variety of Breeds Born of Few Genes
- Observatory: To Enjoy Champagne, Treat It Like Beer, Study Says
The Thoughtful Animal
Primates Aren't The Only Things There's A Shortage Of In Africa
August 16, 2010