5/15/2008 - Scientific American
Astronomers have discovered traces of a star that went supernova about 140 years ago, around the time of the U.S. Civil War and the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. The expanding debris cloud, or remnant, known as G1.9+0.3, lies near the center of the Milky Way, about 25,000 light-years from Earth.
5/15/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
The polar bear, whose summertime Arctic hunting grounds have been greatly reduced by a warming climate, will be placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced. But the long-delayed decision to list the bear as a threatened species may prove less of an impediment to oil and gas industries along the Alaskan coast than many environmentalists had hoped.
5/15/2008 - NewScientist
Far from deserving their lazy reputation, wild sloths sleep far less than biologists had thought. The first study to measure the sleep patterns of animals in the wild has found that three-toed sloths doze for less than 10 hours a day, compared to the rather more somnolent 16 hours a day recorded in captivity.
5/15/2008 - Time Magazine
New research suggests that the qualities you acquire in online virtual games--whether it's confidence or insecurity--can spill over and change your conduct in the real world, often without your awareness.
5/15/2008 - eSchool News
Widespread adoption of one-to-one computing programs and the growing use of online assessments are among the key ed-tech trends occurring in schools across the country, according to the 2008 America's Digital Schools report. However, implementation of these and other technologies leaves little funding for new initiatives, and bandwidth issues are limiting the scope of interaction students can have with technology.
5/13/2008 - Department of Education
The Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) program was established in response to growing national concerns about students too often lost and alienated in large, impersonal high schools, as well as concerns about school safety and low levels of achievement and graduation for many students. A new study looks at its early implementation.
5/13/2008 - BBC News
Breathing in air pollution from traffic fumes can raise the risk of potentially deadly blood clots, a new study says. Researchers say pollution makes blood more sticky and likely to clot.
5/13/2008 - ABC News
News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating "designer babies." Reports of the first genetically modified human embryo have some groups worried that the advance is a first step toward designer babies.
5/13/2008 - Science Daily
Scientists have found a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human aging. They have discovered a gene in fruit flies that means flies can now be used to study the effects aging has on DNA.
5/13/2008 - CBS News
Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants, according to a government report that lays out a possible plan for wind energy growth.
5/13/2008 - NSTA Reports—Debra Shapiro
Students in Chicago’s multi-grade charter high schools—schools that also include middle school students—not only tend to score higher on the ACT college entrance exam, but also are more likely to graduate high school and attend college, according to a new study that compared these students with those attending Chicago’s public schools.
5/12/2008 - Scientific American
A company banking on drivers' weariness of skyrocketing gasoline prices unveiled a home refinery device offering another option--ethanol. E-Fuel Corporation says its EFuel100 MicroFueler can produce up to 35 gallons (132 liters) of ethanol a week that consumers can pump directly into their cars and trucks.
5/12/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
For those who don't like to drool, slur their speech, or unknowingly bite their tongue after a visit to the dentist, help might be at hand. A small drug company said it won approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market the first drug meant to undo the effects of local dental anesthesia.
5/12/2008 - eSchool News
Most parents agree that digital media are important for success, but they remain skeptical about the value of digital media in developing students' social skills.
5/12/2008 - CBS News
As seeds get better, much of the world's soil is getting worse and people are going hungry. Scientists say if they can get the world out of the economically triggered global food crisis, better dirt will be at the root of the solution.
5/12/2008 - Time Magazine
The more we study the workings of memory, the more we understand why it so often fails. The good news: it may be in your control.
5/9/2008 - Time Magazine
Scientists said they have mapped the genetic makeup of the platypus--one of nature's strangest animals with a bill like a duck's, a mammal's fur, and snake-like venom.
5/9/2008 - NewScientist
Flakes of iron snow could be falling inside the planet Mercury, according to a new experiment. This hot metal snowfall might help generate Mercury's puzzling magnetic field.
5/9/2008 - eSchool News
Long a hotbed of environmental activism, America's campuses are blooming green, Forbes reports. Schools are committing to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions, they're funneling endowment money into renewable-energy investment funds, and students--the engine behind much of this growth--are pushing for more.
5/9/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
Six thousand years ago, northern Africa was a place of trees, grasslands, lakes, and people. Today, it is the Sahara--a desolate area larger than Australia. In today's issue of the journal Science, researchers report that the climate transition occurred gradually.
5/8/2008 - CBC News
Work that requires decision making, negotiating with others, analysis, and making judgments builds up your "cognitive reserve"--a level of mental function that helps you avoid or compensate for age-related mental decline.
5/8/2008 - National Geographic
Debate has heated up over a controversial theory that suggests huge comet impacts wiped out North America's large mammals nearly 13,000 years ago.
5/8/2008 - NewScientist
Two whirling dust devils towering nearly a kilometer high have been seen at the exact spot where the Phoenix Mars lander is due to touch down in a few weeks. The dust vortices should pose no threat to the landing, but could provide dramatic views from the probe when it alights on the flat, relatively barren landscape.
5/8/2008 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
A profusion of online programs that can track a student's daily progress, including class attendance, missed assignments and grades on homework, quizzes and tests, is changing the nature of communication among parents and children, families, and teachers.
5/8/2008 - Time Magazine
People who sleep fewer than six hours a night--or more than nine--are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies.