News
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Health & MedicineVaccine Stretch: Smaller dose packs punch against flu
A fraction of the standard dose of flu vaccine appears to grant people immunity to influenza if injected into the skin rather than in the muscle of the upper arm.
By David Shiga -
EarthDDT linked to miscarriages
A study of Chinese women finds that the pesticide DDT can not only affect menstrual cycles but also foster miscarriages very early in pregnancy.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineUranium, the newest ‘hormone’
Animal experiments indicate that waterborne uranium can mimic the activity of estrogen, a female sex hormone.
By Janet Raloff -
EarthCan phthalates subtly alter boys?
Researchers have linked a mom's exposure to phthalates with a genital marker in boys suggesting a subtle feminization of their reproductive organs.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineHeavy traffic may trigger heart attacks
Exposure to traffic can dramatically increase a person's risk of having a heart attack soon afterward.
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Planetary ScienceRiddles on Titan
Two puzzles have emerged from the Cassini spacecraft's first close flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
By Ron Cowen -
PhysicsParticle hunt off, collider comes down
Despite tantalizing, last-minute hints of a long-sought, mass-giving particle called the Higgs boson, dismantling of the Large Electron-Positron collider has begun.
By Science News -
PhysicsHot little levers write beaucoup bits
Arrays of microscopic tips may offer a way to pack digital data more tightly and transfer it more quickly than is possible with magnetic hard disks.
By Peter Weiss -
PhysicsLight step toward quantum networks
During the transfer of a quantum data bit from matter to light, a cloud of extremely cold atoms emitted a photon carrying a version of the cloud's quantum state.
By Peter Weiss -
PhysicsWhen all is a spin, calm is dragged in
When laboratory vortices are mixed to create the equivalent of a tornado in a hurricane, the "hurricane" may gobble up spots of calm from the outside world.
By Peter Weiss -
Health & MedicineMarker signals esophageal cancer
Silencing of the gene that encodes the cancer-suppressing protein APC is common in people with esophageal cancer, suggesting that physicians might use this genetic abnormality as a marker for the disease.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineIs penicillin-allergy rate overstated?
A study finds that 20 of 21 people who reported having a penicillin allergy when filling out paperwork during a hospital visit in fact don't have one, suggesting that the prevalence of this allergy is overstated.
By Nathan Seppa