News in Brief

Neuroscience

Video game sharpens up elderly brains

Adults over 60 who played for several hours a month beat untrained 20-year-olds in racing game.

Health & Medicine

Heart disease patients more apt to take one combined pill than many

Patients stayed on track better with a "polypill" than with three medications.

Animals

New fungus species found killing salamanders

First there was amphibian killer fungus Bd. Now there's Bs.

Health & Medicine

Don’t stand so close to me

Personal space has a measurable boundary, a study suggests.

Earth

Big canyon entombed beneath Greenland’s ice

Newly discovered chasm helps explain island's lack of subglacial lakes.

Life

Flu antibodies can make disease worse

Pigs vaccinated against one influenza virus got lung damage if infected with another strain.

Earth

Map tracks path of dust plume from Chelyabinsk meteor

Satellite data capture how the jet stream pushed particles through the planet's atmosphere.

Life

Bats can carry MERS

DNA of a deadly respiratory virus has been found in a Saudi Arabian mammal.

Earth

Millions in China at risk of exposure to arsenic-tainted water

Simulation shows possibly contaminated areas and predicts populations at risk.

Life

Natural antifreeze prevents frogsicles

Sugar and other chemicals keep Alaskan frogs from freezing completely.

Astronomy

Pictures of young star show unusual outbursts

Ejections from stellar newborn move faster and in different directions than astronomers thought.

Ecosystems

Aging European forests full to the brim with carbon

Trees' capacity to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is dwindling.