Science

Newly published research explains why young sunflowers turn to face the sun as it moves across the sky.

Science

The Mystery Of Why Sunflowers Turn To Follow The Sun — Solved

6:04pm August 05, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Scientists have answered a burning question central to the charm of sunflowers: Why do young flowers move their blooms to always face the sun over the course of a day?

A view of the main trench to the permanent camp at Camp Century, Greenland, in the 1950s. The U.S. Army base was abandoned in 1967, after Greenland's ice sheet began shifting and the Army realized that the tunnels wouldn't last.

Melting Ice In Greenland Could Expose Serious Pollutants From Buried Army Base

5:47pm August 05, 2016

by Christopher Joyce

Camp Century was a research station and test site for deploying nuclear missiles before it was abandoned under the ice in the '60s. Scientists say pollutants left behind may spread as the ice melts.

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Four states have no legal insanity defense.

With No Insanity Defense, Seriously Ill People End Up In Prison

3:13pm August 05, 2016

by Natalie Jacewicz

Four states have no insanity defense. Advocates say that means seriously ill people can be executed where in other states they wouldn't be convicted at all, and it makes it harder to get treatment.

(Left) Eleven elemental maps providing an overview of the construction of the painting. (Right) Detail of zinc map.

Science
Arts

X-Rays Reveal Hidden Portrait Under Painting By Edgar Degas

2:20pm August 05, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

A team of researchers in Australia used a special mapping technique to expose a striking painting of another woman under the French Impressionist's Portrait of a Woman.

Science

Alaskan Glaciers Tell A Story Of Deep Time

1:30pm August 05, 2016

by Shawn Fitzmaurice

Rock, once a seafloor of mud, sand, and pebbles, towers into the sky, only to erode away, becoming a new and different seafloor, layered like pages in a book.

Appalachian State University's Dr. Ellen Cowan reads these pages, most recently off the coast of Alaska. They tell the full story of geological changes on the continent, as written by glaciers over millions of years.

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Sixteen companies are competing to land robots on the moon before the end of next year.

Florida Company Gets One Bureaucratic Step Closer To Landing On The Moon

10:31pm August 04, 2016

by Rae Ellen Bichell

A Florida company has been given the green light to send a robot off the planet, aiming for the moon. It's a milestone in the effort to privatize space exploration.

Even when results from studies involving children are available, they frequently aren't published in medical journals.

Medical Studies Involving Children Often Go Unpublished

6:28pm August 04, 2016

by Richard Harris

An analysis of pediatric clinical trials found that the results of almost a third of studies that were finished weren't published in medical journals. The lapses raise scientific and ethical concerns.

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Pablo Ross of the University of California, Davis, inserts human stem cells into a pig embryo as part of experiments to create chimeric embryos.

NIH Plans To Lift Ban On Research Funds For Part-Human, Part-Animal Embryos

6:28pm August 04, 2016

by Rob Stein

The National Institutes of Health is proposing to fund experiments that create chimeras of human and animal cells while also imposing restrictions in response to ethical concerns.

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Science

NIH Plans To End Moratorium On Funding Controversial Chimera Research

5:00pm August 04, 2016

The National Institutes of Health is proposing to permit funding for the controversial experiments, which involve scientists using human stem cells to create embryos that are part human, part animal.

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Hog Island, Maine, osprey chicks await their parents' return. Seconds later, an eagle makes off with one of the nestlings.

Science

In Captivating Video, A Bald Eagle Attacks An Osprey Nest

9:08pm August 03, 2016

by Richard Gonzales

Rare video footage from Maine shows how resurging bald eagles prey on other species. The good news is that two out of three osprey chicks survived.