Energy Loan Guarantee Official Resigns
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The official, Jonathan Silver, came to the job in November 2009, two months after the office gave final approval to the Solyndra loan.
E.P.A. Proposes Easing Smog Rules
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The proposed change would allow 10 states to emit more smog-causing pollution in an effort to decrease smokestack emissions that contribute to unhealthy air downwind.
Israeli Scientist Wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry
By KENNETH CHANG
Dan Shechtman was recognized on Wednesday for his discovery of chemical structures called quasicrystals.
Studies of Universe’s Expansion Win Physics Nobel
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Three American-born scientists won the prize for their studies of exploding stars that revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
After Setbacks in Harvesting Stem Cells, a New Approach Shows Promise
By NICHOLAS WADE
Researchers from the New York Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory have, by lucky accident, found a way that stem cells can be harvested.
-
Green Blog: Q and A: Forests and Climate
-
E.P.A. Panel Issues Plan for Gulf Coast Restoration
-
E-Mails Suggest White House Weighed a 2nd Solyndra Loan Worth Almost Half a Billion Dollars
-
App Smart: Watching Out for Falling Stars, With a Smartphone in Hand
-
Group Opposed to Pipeline Seeks More Documents on Lobbyists
-
Cooling Problem Shuts Nuclear Reactor in Japan
-
Unesco Delays Decision on Fate of Prize Sponsored by Dictator
-
Group Urges Research Into Aggressive Efforts to Fight Climate Change
-
A Significant Ozone Hole Is Reported Over the Arctic
Science Times | October 4, 2011
Can Answers to Evolution Be Found in Slime?
By CARL ZIMMER
Steven L. Stephenson
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE While naturalists have known of slime molds for centuries, only now are scientists really starting to understand them.
In a study of slime molds, scientists are learning more about how they cooperate, which ties into some of the deepest questions in evolution.
Slide Show: Beauty and the Blob
Serge Bloch
Scientists say that ostensibly generous behavior, taken to extremes, can become unhelpful, unproductive and even destructive.
Trial Over Earthquake in Italy Puts Focus on Probability and Panic
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
The trial of six seismologists and a government official has focused attention on a vexing problem in earthquake-prone region: how to effectively communicate the risk of potential disaster.
Natural Selection Leaves Fresh Footprints on a Canadian Island
By NICHOLAS WADE
Scientists report a remarkably quick response to natural selection in an isolated population of French-Canadian women on the Île des Coudres in the St. Lawrence River.
Health News
U.S. Panel Says No to Prostate Screening for Healthy Men
By GARDINER HARRIS
Giving healthy men P.S.A. blood tests for prostate cancer does not save lives and often leads to treatment that can cause needless pain and side effects, a government panel said.
An Addiction Vaccine, Tantalizingly Close
By DOUGLAS QUENQUA
Scientists are at work on shots that could one day release people from the grip of substance abuse.
Hoping to Crack Alzheimer’s, Together as a Family
By PAM BELLUCK and SALVADOR RODRIGUEZ
A family from Colombia with a link to an inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease are considered ideal for testing of preventive treatments.
More Multimedia
Video: Richard Dawkins
An interview with the evolutionary biologist, best-selling author and outspoken atheist.
Video: The Wild Dolphin Project
For 25 years, Denise Herzing has returned to the same place in the Bahamas to study a group of wild dolphins. Next year, she will pioneer a project to communicate with them.
Interactive Feature: Panoramas: Expanding the Shortcut Between the Seas
In the first expansion in the 100-year history of the Panama Canal, crews are starting to build a new set of locks that will handle much larger ships.
Video: Life Out There: Eden in a Test Tube
To better recognize extraterrestrial life should they come upon it, scientists are working to create simple life forms in a lab. But, as Dennis Overbye reports, they first have to agree what life is.
Scientist at Work Blog
The Sounds of Going Home
By BERNARD COAKLEY
It takes an experienced sailor to recognize the sounds on a research vessel, separating the noises from various pieces of equipment and noting the loss of one or the gain of another.
Update on Arctic Sea Ice
October 6, 2011
House Votes to Delay Emissions Rule
October 6, 2011
On Our Radar: Fracking vs. Drought
October 6, 2011
Science Columns
Q & A
Frequent Fliers
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY
Most fruits have spent time in a packinghouse, where fruit flies typically lay their eggs, which rapidly hatch on the counter in a warm kitchen.
Observatory
Researchers Devise a Method to Meet the Beetles
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
Ambrosia beetles are hard to observe in the field, but researchers have found a way to watch their colonies by developing glass tubes that mimic their environments.
Observatory
No Fins? No Problem: Jellyfish Have Their Ways
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Despite their sluggish looks, jellyfish are just as effective at hunting and catching meals as their competitors with fins, using their body size to increase their success.
Observatory
Fast Vocal Muscles Are Behind Bats’ Skill
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
The muscles, which bats use to navigate and track prey, can contract 20 times the speed of humans’ fastest muscles, the ones in the eye.
Podcast: Science Times
This week: The revenge of the slime molds, readers take a global health challenge and we take a look at pathological altruism.
Health Columns
The Consumer
How to Steer Toward the Path of Least Treatment
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Many primary care doctors think American health care has become overly aggressive, according to a new survey; here’s how to avoid the perils of unnecessary treatment.
Personal Health
Navigating the Net Wisely in a Health Crisis
By JANE E. BRODY
“The Web-Savvy Patient,” a book co-written by a cancer patient, is a guide to using the Web to one’s advantage, and avoiding its potential pitfalls.
Really?
The Claim: Yawning Cools the Brain
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
The medical literature is rife with explanations for yawning, but one has gained substantial ground in recent years: This mysterious habit may help regulate brain temperature.
Opinion
Dot Earth Blog
'Settled Science' and CO2
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
A Twitter response to a Wall Street Journal riff on "settled science" and global warming.
Wordplay Blog
Numberplay: Fusing Dots
By GARY ANTONICK
Harold Reiter explores dots that fuse - and deepens our basic understanding of how we count.
Letters
Science, Environment and Health Series | Special Sections
MOST POPULAR - SCIENCE
- Israeli Scientist Wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry
- After Setbacks in Harvesting Stem Cells, a New Approach Shows Promise
- Basics: The Pathological Altruist Gives Till Someone Hurts
- Can Answers to Evolution Be Found in Slime?
- Studies of Universe’s Expansion Win Physics Nobel
- Green: Insurance Against the Future
- Natural Selection Leaves Fresh Footprints on a Canadian Island
- Q & A: Frequent Fliers
- Temperature Rising: With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors
- Vindicated: Ridiculed Israeli Scientist Wins Nobel
- Israeli Scientist Wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry
- Studies of Universe’s Expansion Win Physics Nobel
- After Setbacks in Harvesting Stem Cells, a New Approach Shows Promise
- Basics: The Pathological Altruist Gives Till Someone Hurts
- Can Answers to Evolution Be Found in Slime?
- Update on Arctic Sea Ice
- Natural Selection Leaves Fresh Footprints on a Canadian Island
- TransCanada Pipeline Foes See U.S. Bias in E-Mails
- Insurance Against the Future
- Tiny Neutrinos May Have Broken Cosmic Speed Limit
Times Science Reporters
We Beasties
A Bitter Sweet Nobel - Beutler, Janeway, and the Dawn of Innate Immunity
October 6, 2011
Greg Laden's Blog
"There can be no such creature" - Chemistry Nobel: Daniel Shechtman
September 5, 2011
