News
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Model explains bubonic plague’s persistence
A computer model of bubonic plague suggests rats can harbor the disease for years before a human epidemic breaks out.
By John Travis - Physics
Protons may waltz off nuclear dance floor
Detection of proton pairs simultaneously emitted from neon nuclei raises the possibility that a new and long-sought window into the nucleus has been found and unlocked.
By Peter Weiss - Archaeology
Stone Age statuettes don disputed apparel
A report describing woven caps, skirts, belts, and other apparel on Venus figurines from the Stone Age draws some critical responses.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Flaws make it a geologist’s best friend
By analyzing some of a diamond's trapped impurities, researchers were able to measure remnants of the gargantuan pressure that produced the gem.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
AIDS Vaccine Tests Well in Monkeys
An experimental AIDS vaccine bolstered with two immune proteins protects rhesus monkeys from the disease even when they are exposed to a combination of simian and human immunodeficiency virus.
By Nathan Seppa - Animals
New Green Eyes: First butterfly that’s genetically modified
Scientists have genetically engineered a butterfly for the first time, putting a jellyfish protein into a tropical African species so that its eyes fluoresce green.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Meat of the Matter: Fish, flesh feed gout, but milk counters it
Nutrition research supports the ancient notion that a diet rich in meat contributes to the development of gout, a form of arthritis common in men.
By Ben Harder - Tech
Special Treatment: Fuel cell draws energy from waste
Researchers have created a fuel cell that breaks down organic matter in wastewater and, in the process, generates small amounts of electricity.
- Health & Medicine
Shutting Off an On Switch: Novel drugs slow two cancers in mice
By shutting down a signaling molecule on cancerous cells, scientists have found a way to slow multiple myeloma and fibrosarcoma, tests in animals show.
By Nathan Seppa - Astronomy
Deepest Vision Yet: Hubble takes ultralong look at the cosmos
Astronomers unveiled the deepest visible-light portrait of the universe ever taken, a million-second-long exposure by the Hubble Space Telescope that includes near-infrared images of what appear to be the most-distant galaxies known.
By Ron Cowen - Anthropology
Brain Size Surprise: All primates may share expanded frontal cortex
A new analysis of brains from a variety of mammal species indicates that frontal-cortex expansion has occurred in all primates, not just in people, as scientists have traditionally assumed.
By Bruce Bower -
Scrambled Dogma: Stem cells may make new eggs in women
Scientists may have come up with a new explanation for how a woman's biological clock works.
By John Travis