News
- Health & Medicine
Potential Block for Epilepsy: Researchers find new drug target
Using genetically engineered mice, scientists have identified a new target in the brain for drugs that could prevent epilepsy.
- Earth
Dangerous Dust? Chemicals in plastics are tied to allergies
Elevated risks for developing multiple allergies, including asthma, eczema, and rhinitis, appear to be associated with household exposure to synthetic chemicals called phthalates.
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Parasite Pursuit: Sand fly coughs up leishmania protozoan’s secrets of proliferation
A parasite spread by the sand fly secretes gel into the throat of the fly, which then regurgitates it when it bites a person, spreading the infection.
- Ecosystems
Deep-Sea Cukes Can’t Avoid the Weather: El Niño changes life 2.5 miles down
A 14-year study of a spot 2.5 miles underwater off the California coast shows short-term links between surface events and an abundance of deep-water creatures.
- Earth
Quick Bite: Some gorges carved surprisingly fast
Analyses of rock samples from two river gorges along the Atlantic seaboard suggest that the largest parts of those chasms were carved during a geologically short period at the height of the last ice age.
- Physics
Inside Plastic Transistors: Crystal-clear window opens on hidden flows
By creating a new type of plastic transistor, researchers have identified crucial details regarding electric flow through plastic semiconductors.
- Health & Medicine
Suicide Watch: Antidepressants get large-scale inspection
Data from the United Kingdom indicate that depressed patients attempt and complete suicides at an elevated rate in the 3 months after starting to take any of four antidepressant drugs.
- Earth
Skin proves poor portal for arsenic in treated wood
Direct contact with old-style pressure-treated lumber should pose little risk that arsenic will penetrate the skin.
- Health & Medicine
New cholesterol guidelines advise more treatment
Citing results from five recent trials of anticholesterol statin drugs, U.S. health officials recommend that physicians use the drugs to treat many more patients with high cholesterol.
- Paleontology
Chipmunks in Wisconsin toughed out ice age
Analyses of DNA from chipmunks in parts of the U.S. Midwest hint that some populations of the creatures stayed in northern refuges rather than migrating south at the beginning of the last ice age.
- Animals
A first for mammals: Tropical hibernating
The fat-tailed lemur, the first tropical mammal documented to hibernate, exploits local heat spikes to save energy during the long snooze.
- Chemistry
Tarantula venom disrupts cells in unexpected way
The unusual way in which the chemical components of tarantula venom disrupt cells could inspire the design of new drug therapies.
