Science

The eye of Hurricane Earl in the Atlantic Ocean, seen from a NASA research aircraft on Aug. 30, 2010. This flight through the eyewall caught Earl just as it was intensifying from a Category 2 to a Category 4 hurricane. Researchers collected air samples on

Bird, Plane, Bacteria? Microbes Thrive In Storm Clouds

8:36am January 29, 2013

by Véronique LaCapra

Microbes can thrive in extreme environments, from inside fiery volcanoes to down on the bottom of the ocean. Now scientists have found a surprising number of them living in storm clouds tens of thousands of feet above the Earth. And those airborne microbes could play a role in global climate.

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The Book Club Catches 'The Andromeda Strain'

1:08pm January 25, 2013

This month, the book club discusses Michael Crichton's 1969 best-selling science fiction thriller The Andromeda Strain. Writer Richard Preston joins the club to talk about Crichton's writing style, and what it was like to work on Crichton's unfinished final manuscript, Micro.

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Cold Snap Shakes Up Winter Weather Outlook

1:03pm January 25, 2013

Unusual activity in the atmosphere over the Arctic Circle is triggering snow and frigid temperatures across Canada, the U.S. and parts of Europe. Climatologist Jeff Weber, of the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research, explains why this winter could pack a punch.

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Science

Canine Mystery: How Dogs Became Man's Best Friend

1:03pm January 25, 2013

Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated, but scientists have long debated precisely how--and when--it happened. With archaeological records and genetic research leading to different hypotheses, are we any closer to understanding how dogs became man's best friend?

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Science

Shakespeare's Sonnets, Encoded In DNA

1:00pm January 25, 2013

Reporting in Nature, researchers write of encoding a variety of files--jpg, mp3, txt and pdf--in strands of DNA. Lead author Nick Goldman says DNA is extraordinarily long-lasting, compared to today's hard drives and magnetic tapes. And if all the world's information were written in DNA, he says, it would fit in the back of a station wagon.

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William Shakespeare, depicted in this 17th century painting, penned his sonnets on parchment. Now his words have found a new home ... in twisting strands of DNA.

Science
Arts

Shall I Encode Thee In DNA? Sonnets Stored On Double Helix

1:19pm January 24, 2013

by Adam Cole

The world is full of data — and that's a problem. We have to find a place to store all those digital photos, tax records and unfinished novels. British scientists have demonstrated a possible solution: They've stored all of Shakespeare's sonnets on several small stretches of DNA.

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Women smoke in New York City's Times Square.

Female Smokers Face Greater Risk Than Previously Thought

1:19pm January 24, 2013

by Richard Knox

One new analysis finds female smokers are more than 26 times more likely to die of lung cancer than nonsmoking women — twice the rate calculated 30 years ago. New data also quantify the surprising payoffs of smoking cessation — especially under the age of 40.

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Health workers in Nepal culled chickens and destroyed eggs following an outbreak of bird flu in Kathmandu in October 2012.

Scientists Put An End To Moratorium On Bird Flu Research

8:53pm January 23, 2013

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

After researchers created versions of the bird flu virus that could spread more easily, critics began to worry that the work could spawn a pandemic if a virus escaped from the lab. After halting their work for more than a year, scientists now say the benefits outweigh the risks, and they are set to restart their experiments.

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Two chimps groom each other at the Save the Chimps facility in Florida. The National Institutes of Health owns about 360 chimpanzees that aren't yet retired and that are living at research facilities; new guidelines say most of its chimps should be retire

Rules Would Retire Most Research Chimps

3:56pm January 23, 2013

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

An NIH working group recommends that most of the agency's 360 research chimpanzees be sent to a sanctuary — a non-laboratory setting where chimps can live more natural lives. But even if the NIH accepts the recommendations, putting them into effect won't be easy.

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"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," President Obama said Monday during his second inaugural address.

In Second Inaugural, Obama Makes Climate A Priority

8:48pm January 22, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

President Obama pulled out a surprise in his inaugural address. After barely mentioning climate change in his campaign, he put it on his short list of priorities for his second term. Experts believe he'll use the EPA to ramp up efforts to reduce greenhouse gases from power plants.

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