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Science & Technology | Most Recent First
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Australian Frog—First Vertebrate to Make Poison
May 17, 2002 —
Some frogs are protected from their predators by secreting poisons from glands in their skin. These poisons are alkaloids that the frog has accumulated from a diet of poisonous ants, beetles, and millipedes. Now, scientists have found an Australian frog that produces its own poisonous alkaloids—the first vertebrate to be shown to do so. Most alkaloids are made by plants. The new discovery could have implications for drug research.
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Crocodilians' Hunting Secret—Blue Freckles?
May 16, 2002 —
A student scientist's accidental observation led to new insights on how alligators and crocodiles react instantly to disturbances in the shallow waters in which they hunt. These ancient reptiles detect movement using not only hearing and sight, but also a specialized set of nerves that gives them extreme sensitivity to touch.
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Mummies: "Postcards" From the Dead
May 10, 2002 —
National Geographic News presents a photo gallery of preserved human remains from around the world. The photos and collection of mummy resources celebrates the premiere of the National Geographic Television documentary Inca Mummies: Secrets of a Lost World in the United States on Wednesday.
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What Caused Argentina's Mystery Craters?
May 9, 2002 —
A fresh analysis of meteorite evidence scattered across Argentina has prompted a revision of an impact scenario in which a large meteorite is thought
to have broken up and skipped across the Earth like stones on the surface of a pond. Craters thought to have been left by this extraterrestrial body may
have been carved by the wind instead, some scientists think. But to further confuse the theory is the discovery of a great many chunks of glass. Was
this caused by a meteorite? If so, where is its crater?
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New Zealand Tries to Cap Gaseous Sheep Burps
May 13, 2002 —
New Zealand's 55 million farm animals discharge 90 percent of that country's methane emissions. Now scientists propose a new diet for sheep and cattle that will enable the country to cut this potent greenhouse gas by 16 percent, enabling New Zealand to meet its obligations to help reduce the causes of global warming.
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Deadliest Volcano of the 20th Century, 100 Years Later
May 8, 2002 —
Mount Pelée, on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, erupted at 7:50 a.m. on May 8, 1902, one hundred years ago today. A giant black plume darkened the sky, while a superheated cloud of hot ash, toxic gases, and magma fragments raced down the volcano's sides at hurricane-force speeds. Within minutes, the city of St. Pierre had been destroyed, its 30,000 inhabitants dead.
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Dino-Era Fossil—The First Flower?
May 3, 2002 —
From a bed of volcanic ash deposited in northeastern China more than 124 million years ago, botanists have recovered impressively complete fossils of some of Earth's earliest flowering plants. The discovery of this new family of plants sheds light on the life and times of early members of an enormous category of flora, which includes flowers, trees, and many life-sustaining crops.
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Scientists "Drive" Rats By Remote Control
May 1, 2002 —
Scientists have trained rats to respond to signals from a laptop-based command center up to 500 yards away. The robo-rats were steered through an obstacle course by a human operator. Intelligent, nimble, and inexpensive, such animal robots could be used for spying or on dangerous search-and-rescue missions.
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Fighter Jet Hunts for "Vulcanoid" Asteroids
May 6, 2002 —
Space scientists have hitched a ride aboard a U.S. fighter jet to search the twilight regions of space for evidence of small asteroids known as "vulcanoids"—named for a speculative planet called Vulcan. If they exist, such asteroids may be debris left over from the formation of the planet Mercury.
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Arctic Team Seeks 1840s Explorer's Lost Ships
April 30, 2002 —
In the century and a half since Sir John Franklin made an ill-fated attempt to find a northern sea route to Asia, no traces of his two ships have been found in the Canadian Arctic. A new expedition launched today hopes to change that.
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Ocean Litter Gives Alien Species an Easy Ride
April 29, 2002 —
Alien species are using trash in the ocean to raft their way to new territory, where they can colonize and possibly overwhelm local marine ecosystems, reports a British marine biologist.
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Can Earth Be Powered by Energy Beamed From Moon?
April 26, 2002 —
It may sound like lunacy, but a scientist says that beaming solar power to Earth by way of the moon could provide a clean, emission-free, and unlimited source of energy.
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Ancient Peru Torture Deaths: Sacrifices or War Crimes?
April 29, 2002 —
Ancient skeletal remains from a Moche temple complex in northern Peru show that the victims suffered shockingly brutal deaths. Were they executed as human sacrifices to the gods, or ritually murdered as the losers in fierce power struggles between competing city-states? A National Geographic EXPLORER TV program tracks forensic efforts to find the answer.
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Universe Reborn Endlessly in New Model of the Cosmos
April 25, 2002 —
According to widely accepted theory, the universe was born in an instantaneous creation of matter and energy. Or was it? A new model views the Big Bang as a transition in an endless cycle of cosmological rebirth.
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Earliest Known Ancestor of Placental Mammals Discovered
April 24, 2002 —
Researchers have discovered the earliest known ancestor of the group of mammals that give birth to live young. The finding is based on a well-preserved fossil of a tiny, hairy 125-million-year-old shrewlike species that scurried about in bushes and the low branches of trees.
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Environmental Movement at 40: Is Earth Healthier?
April 19, 2002 —
Forty years ago Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, documenting the chemical warfare that human beings were waging on the natural world. The book is widely credited with launching today's environmental movement. In observation of Earth Day on April 22, National Geographic News looks at what's changed and what hasn't since Carson sounded the alarm.
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Was This Earth's First Predator?
April 9, 2002 —
What animal was the first to kill another? Paleontologists are tightening a dragnet around the prime suspect by gleaning clues from the fossilized remains of predators, their prey, and the tracks each left behind.
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Was The Humble Sponge Earth's First Animal?
April 1, 2002 —
An ancient sponge, similar to the modern creatures of reefs and seafloors, is the "Eve" from which all animals arose, says a researcher who studies the genetic code of marine organisms. The work is featured in a new National Geographic television series, The Shape of Life, on the origins of the animal kingdom's remarkable diversity.
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Earthquakes, Volcanoes May Be Tied to Species Diversity
April 4, 2002 —
A team of Indian scientists offers an upside take on earthquakes and volcanoes. Their study found that the richest concentrations of diverse plant and animal life are in geologically active regions of the world that are most prone to tremblors.
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Life Is Confusing For Two-Headed Snakes
March 22, 2002 —
Two-headed snakes are rare but not unheard of, and one recently found in Spain is giving scientists an opportunity to study how the anomaly affects their ability to hunt and eat.
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Inner Earth May Hold More Water Than the Seas
March 7, 2002 —
Molten rocks deep in the earths interior may be surprisingly wet, Japanese researchers say. From lab experiments, they have concluded there may be more H2O deep underground than in all oceans, lakes, and rivers combined—with major implications for inner shifting and surface forces.
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