News in Brief
- Life
Bird flu follows avian flyways
A deadly bird flu virus spreads along wildfowl migration routes in Asia.
- Astronomy
Revived Kepler telescope finds first exoplanet
NASA’s Kepler space telescope finds its first planet — a possible super-Earth — since getting a second chance at life.
- Earth
South Napa earthquake revived bone-dry streams
The South Napa earthquake freed groundwater trapped in nearby hills, revitalizing previously dry streams.
- Chemistry
Nylon goes green
A new simple chemical reaction makes manufacturing nylon less harmful to the planet.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta may have spotted comet’s primordial ingredients
Photos taken by the Rosetta spacecraft may show pristine material that formed the solar system’s comets, asteroids and planets roughly 4.6 billion years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Old product might help smokers quit
A drug used in Eastern Europe for decades by people trying to quit smoking outperformed a nicotine patch in a six-month test.
- Life
Fast test reveals drug-resistant bacteria
A new test uses time-lapse photography to see within a few hours whether individual bacterial cells are vulnerable to antibiotics.
- Planetary Science
Rover finds methane in Mars air, organics in rocks
NASA’s Curiosity rover has found organic molecules on Mars, but scientists can’t say whether they are a sign of life on the Red Planet.
- Genetics
Domestication did horses no genetic favors
Horses bear the cost of domestication in the form of harmful genetic variants, a study of equine DNA finds.
- Life
Images reveal secrets of zinc sparks
These sparks are created when billions of zinc atoms shoot from thousands of small pouches nestled just beneath the surface of a mouse egg cell.
- Life
Imprisoning parasites can deter malaria’s spread
Disabling a protein traps malaria-causing parasites within red blood cells and prevents the organisms from reproducing.
- Planetary Science
Martian crater was once filled with liquid water
Sandstone deposits on Mars indicate that Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover’s stomping ground, was once a lake fed by rivers.
