All researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology wanted was a simple, quick method for making thin films of block copolymers or BCPs (chemically distinct polymers linked together) in order to have decent samples for taking measurements important to the microelectronics industry. What they got for their efforts, as detailed in the Sept. 12, 2007, Nano Letters, was an unexpected...

Many Web-based services, from shopping to online word processing, allow computer programs to talk to each other and exchange user data across several Web sites without human intervention. Many of the attractive features of this “Web 2.0,” including greater access to information and one-stop transactions that process information from several websites, are at odds with traditional ways of...

Children could have their cholesterol levels tested at about 15 months of age to prevent heart disease later in life, say doctors in a study published in BMJ today.

Immune system police are as good at recognizing bad guys, such as bacteria and viruses, as they are our own tissue, researchers say.

A team of international physicists that includes researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology has found experimental evidence of a highly sought-after type of arrangement of atomic magnetic moments, or spins, in a series of materials. Their work, one of the very few studies of this particular spin state, which has been postulated as a possible underlying mechanism for...

An international team of astronomers might have discovered the missing link in the evolution of the so-called magnetic cataclysmic variable stars. They determined the spin and orbital periods of the binary star Paloma. They found that the Paloma system has a weird way of rotating that fills the gap between two classes of magnetic cataclysmic stars. Their results will soon be published in Astronomy...

An unmanned Foton spacecraft, carrying a payload of more than 40 ESA experiments, was successfully launched earlier today. The Soyuz-U launcher lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 13:00 CEST (11:00 GMT).

The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level this week since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, opening up the Northwest Passage - a long-sought short cut between Europe and Asia that has been historically impassable.

Extensive medical research shows that mothers` milk satisfies babies` nutritional needs far better than any manufactured infant formula. It also protects babies against many common infectious diseases and certain inflammatory diseases, and probably helps lower the risk of a child later developing diabetes, lymphoma and some types of leukemia.

Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered in a single pass about a dozen otherwise invisible galaxies halfway across the Universe. The discovery, based on a technique that exploits a first-class instrument, represents a major breakthrough in the field of galaxy 'hunting'.

Using a focused laser beam to selectively burn regions of a dense forest of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), researchers have demonstrated a method that may enable rapid prototyping of nanotube microstructures.

(AP) -- Cow manure and fish guts and maggots. It could all soon be dinner - if you're an Idaho rainbow trout.

(AP) -- The deaths of two patients prescribed a powerful painkiller as a headache treatment were among four fatalities linked to the recently approved drug, its manufacturer reported Thursday.

(AP) -- Karoline and Ben Byler knew they might get twins, maybe even triplets, when they started using fertility drugs. They ended up with Florida's first sextuplets.

(AP) -- NASA scientists are teaming with researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to monitor Lake Erie's harmful algae blooms, a move that could lead to early warnings for beachgoers and water departments.

Doctors in Britain say they won't operate on a 57-year-old builder's broken ankle because he is a smoker.

Born 10 years ago, the Google Internet search engine has grown into the electronic center of human knowledge by indexing billions of web pages as well as images, books and videos.

(AP) -- Peruvian officials have closed the country's 240 blood banks after at least four people were infected with HIV from blood transfusions in a public hospital.

(AP) -- A federal agency's decision not to renew a mining permit for a rock quarry near Las Cruces will better protect a repository of pre-dinosaur era fossil tracks.

A Tennessee pharmacist has received a $1 million fine for treating customers at his health-food store with juices and dietary supplements.

(AP) -- Security agents are investigating a Russian scientist for allegedly trying to smuggle out of Russia materials that could be used in building a biological or bacteriological weapon, the scientist and his co-workers said Friday.

(AP) -- Here's a dream-come-true for Web addicts: college credit for watching YouTube.

A U.S.-led international study has found consumers can be easily confused into buying a product by a new sales technique called "disrupt-then-reframe."

A team of dermatologists and dermatopathologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center has identified nine North Texas cases of an infectious skin disease common in South America, Mexico and in the Middle East, where it is sometimes referred to as a “Baghdad boil.”