News

  1. Plants

    Lowering lilies on the tree of life

    Water lilies may belong on the lowest branch of the family tree of flowering plants, along with a shrub called Amborella.

    By Susan Milius
  2. Earth

    Infectious stowaways

    A new study finds that ballast water can move huge quantities of cholera germs and other microbes between ports around the globe.

    By Janet Raloff
  3. Earth

    Problems with eradicating polio

    The oral vaccine's live but attenuated virus may in rare cases revert to the disease-causing form, which can then turn up in natural waters even in regions now certified free of the wild-type virus.

    By Janet Raloff
  4. Health & Medicine

    Cancer cells on the move

    A new study suggests how a gene recently linked to liver, skin, and pancreatic cancer also causes an often-deadly form of breast cancer.