News
- Health & Medicine
Prescription for Trouble: Antidepressants might rewire young brains
Young mice exposed to a common type of antidepressant, known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), showed symptoms of anxiety and depression in adulthood.
- Earth
Fighting Water with Water: To lift the city, pump the sea beneath Venice
With technology commonly used in oil fields, engineers could inject large volumes of seawater into sandy strata deep beneath Venice, Italy, to reverse the ground subsidence that plagues the city.
By Sid Perkins - Chemistry
Fatty acid makes busy micropotter
A fatty acid commonly found in soap and vegetable oil assembles into microscopic, potterylike structures when it crystallizes.
- Health & Medicine
Affairs of the Heartburn: Drugs for stomach acid may hike pneumonia risk
Acid-blocking drugs seem to boost a person's chances of getting pneumonia.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Double Credit: Iron-fortified salt cuts anemia
A form of table salt manufactured to contain iron can fight off anemia among children living in rural North Africa and could expand the role of salt fortification around the world.
By Ben Harder - Animals
Dangerous Times: Guppies don’t follow rules for old age
A study of wild guppies suggests that life in a dangerous place does not automatically push evolution toward rapid aging as previously thought.
By Susan Milius -
Crippled fungus acts as vaccine
A genetically crippled strain of yeast can vaccinate mice against deadly normal strains.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Drug aids destruction of lymphoma cells
The drug rituximab, when added to chemotherapy, boosts survival rates in people with diffuse B-cell lymphoma, a kind of cancer.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Laser Landmark: Silicon device spans technology gap
By coaxing a silicon microstructure into acting as a laser, engineers have achieved a long-sought and important step toward microchips capable of simultaneously manipulating electrons and light.
By Peter Weiss - Earth
Lemon-scented products spawn pollutants
Some fragrances used in home-care products can play a role in generating potentially harmful air pollution.
By Janet Raloff - Anthropology
Evolutionary Shrinkage: Stone Age Homo find offers small surprise
Scientists announced the discovery of the partial skeleton of a small-bodied Homo species that inhabited an eastern Indonesian island from at least 38,000 years ago until about 18,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Familiar face calms stressed-out sheep
The sight of the face of a familiar sheep seems to reduce stress in troubled sheep.
By Susan Milius