News
- Paleontology
Early life forms had a modular structure
Fossils recently discovered in northeastern Newfoundland reveal that some of Earth's earliest large organisms had modular body plans whose main architectural element was a branching, frondlike structure.
- Health & Medicine
Dentists: Eschew chewing aspirin
Chewing aspirin or just letting the tablets dissolve in the mouth can seriously damage teeth.
- Earth
PCBs can taint building caulk
Long-banned, toxic polychlorinated biphenyls in some building caulk applied in the 1960s and 1970s may still pose an exposure risk.
- Health & Medicine
Birthing age and ovarian cancer risk
Giving birth confers on women some protection against ovarian cancer, and the later in life the last pregnancy happens, the better the protection.
- Anthropology
Chimps mature with human ancestor
The Stone Age human ancestor Homo erectus grew at about the same pace as wild chimpanzees today do.
- Astronomy
Cassini eyes Iapetus
Only a few days after it entered orbit around Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft captured an image of Saturn's split- personality moon Iapetus.
- Animals
Trail Mix: Espionage among the bees
Tests with two kinds of stingless bees suggest that the more aggressive species uses scent-based espionage to target raids on the milder species' food.
- 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.
