News
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Bitty Beasts of Burden: Algae can carry cargo
Scientists have devised a way to make single-cell algae bear loads over distances of several centimeters, a tactic that could prove useful in tiny machines.
- Health & Medicine
X Ray Excels: Technique brings a new image to medicine
Recent advances in a technique called phase-contrast x-ray imaging could make it easier for physicians to spot tumors, clogged arteries, and other soft-tissue problems.
- Health & Medicine
Comb over Chemicals: Tool may rid heads of pesticideproof lice
Used systematically, special combs may be more effective than insecticidal shampoos at ridding a child's scalp of head lice.
- Anthropology
Reservoirs of Evolution: Rainy periods linked to human origins in Africa
Three phases of heavy rainfall in eastern Africa between 2.7 million and 900,000 years ago created deep lakes and might have played a critical role in the evolution of human ancestors.
- Health & Medicine
Outwitting TB: Enhanced vaccine protects mice in lab tests
An enhanced vaccine appears to offer better protection against tuberculosis than the current version does, a study in mice suggests.
- Materials Science
Fine Fabric: New, fast way to make sheets of nanotubes
Scientists have come up with a way to efficiently produce thin, transparent sheets of carbon nanotubes that are several meters long.
- Earth
Inhaling salt raises blood pressure
People who work in environments where large amounts of salt particles hang in the air may literally breathe their way to high blood pressure.
- Health & Medicine
Tracking busy genes to get at cancer
By identifying which genes are overactive in certain breast tumors, researchers have discovered a genetic signature that could help doctors predict if and when a woman's cancer might spread to her lungs.
- Tech
Roughing up counterfeiters
A new anticounterfeiting scheme generates unique, reproducible identity codes that could be used to authenticate passports, credit cards, and other items on the basis of inherent, microscopic irregularities in the items' surfaces.
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A Slumber Not So Sweet: Loss of brain cells that regulate breathing may cause death during sleep
Elderly people may die in their sleep because they gradually lose brain cells that control breathing.
- Health & Medicine
New Carrier: Common tick implicated in spread of fever
The brown dog tick is capable of spreading the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
