日期：2014-02-14 Plastic shopping bags, an abundant source of litter on land and at sea, can be converted into diesel, natural gas and other useful petroleum products, researchers report. The conversion produces significantly more energy than it requires and results... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-14 Orangutans come down from the trees and spend more time on the ground than previously realised -- but this behaviour may be partly influenced by humans, a new study has found. Dr Mark Harrison, based in the Department of Geography at the University... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-14 Ignition -- the process of releasing fusion energy equal to or greater than the amount of energy used to confine the fuel -- has long been considered the holy grail of inertial（惯性的） confinement fusion science. A key step along the path to ignit... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 Scientists have demonstrated a new method for counting whales from space. 科学家展示了一种从太空中计算鲸鱼数量的新方法。 It uses very high-resolution satellite pictures and image-processing software to automatically detect the great mammals at or ne... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 When most people envision crocodiles and alligators, they think of them waddling（摇摆蹒跚） on the ground or wading in water -- not climbing trees. However, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, study has found that the reptiles can climb trees as... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 Birds that hoard（贮藏） food for a rainy day better be sure that there are no great tits around to spy on where they hide their reserve of seeds and nuts. So says Anders Brodin and Utku Urhan of the University of Lund in Sweden, who found that grea... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 White rhinoceros（犀牛） may be extinct in twenty years with the current poaching rates. The loss of this megaherbivore is in itself a tragedy, but it may also have tremendous effects on the ecosystems they now live in. The white rhino (Ceratotheriu... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 Astronomers know that while large stars can end their lives as violently cataclysmic supernovae, smaller stars end up as planetary nebulae（行星状星云） -- colourful, glowing clouds of dust and gas. In recent decades these nebulae, once thought to b... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 The rapid conversion of natural lands to cement-dominated urban centers is causing great losses in biodiversity. Yet, according to a new study involving 147 cities worldwide, surprisingly high numbers of plant and animal species persist and even flo... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 A team of French and Swedish researchers have presented new fossil evidence for the origin of one of the most important and emotionally significant parts of our anatomy（解剖学） : the face. Using micron resolution X-ray imaging, they show how a ser... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-13 They lived in America about 13,000 years ago where they hunted mammoth（猛犸象） , mastodons（乳齿象） and giant bison with big spears. The Clovis people were not the first humans in America, but they represent the first humans with a wide expansion... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-11 The bench-scale test widely used to evaluate whether a burning cigarette will ignite（点燃） upholstered furniture may underestimate the tendency of component materials to smolder when these materials are used in sofas and chairs supported by spring... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-11 Micro-machining could be used to create almost flat, Fresnel lenses, that boost the electrical efficiency of solar panels, according to researchers in China. Fresnel lenses were invented by French engineer and scientist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in the... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-11 For the first time, a team of chemists and engineers at Penn State University have placed tiny synthetic motors inside live human cells, propelled them with ultrasonic waves and steered them magnetically. It's not exactly Fantastic Voyage, but it's... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-11 The Nile is a river in Egypt. Sometimes that river is polluted with industrial waste, such as lead, which can cause detrimental（有害的） effects on local sheep and goats via the water supply. Kansas State University's Ronette Gehring is an associat... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-11 Scientists at the University of York today report the development of hemp（大麻） plants with a dramatically increased content of oleic acid（油酸） . The new oil profile results in an attractive cooking oil that is similar to olive oil in terms of... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-10 Seeking a solution to decoherence（脱散） -- the noise that prevents quantum processors from functioning properly -- scientists at USC have developed a strategy of linking quantum bits together into voting blocks, a strategy that significantly boost... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-10 Two University of Iowa researchers recently tested the ability of the world's most advanced weather forecasting models to predict the Sept. 9-16, 2013 extreme rainfall that caused severe flooding in Boulder, Colo. The results, published in the Decem... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-10 When people see a skunk（臭鼬） , the reaction usually is Eww, but when they see a group of meerkats（狐獴） peering around, they often think Aww. Why some animals use noxious scents while others live in social groups to defend themselves against pr... 阅读全文>>

日期：2014-02-10 Mexico is the fourth largest honey producer and fifth largest honey exporter in the world. A Smithsonian researcher and colleagues helped rural farmers in Mexico to quantify the genetically modified organism (GMO) soybean pollen in honey samples rej... 阅读全文>>