News
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Astronomy
Craft finds where sun’s corona gets its hots
New findings may help explain an enduring solar riddle: Although the sun's outer atmosphere lies thousands of kilometers above the visible surface of the sun, it's about 1,000 times hotter.
By Ron Cowen -
Health & Medicine
Insulin inaction may hurt even nondiabetics
Flawed insulin activity may lead to blood changes that foster atherosclerosis, even in people who don't have diabetes.
By Janet Raloff -
Memory echoes in brain’s sensory terrain
The process of remembering an event reactivates brain regions that were involved in initially seeing or hearing the event.
By Bruce Bower -
Earth
Model offers grounds for midwestern quakes
A new computer model may help explain how earthquakes can happen at fault zones located far from the edges of a tectonic plate.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
Gene Tied to Heightened Diabetes Risk
People with three particular variations within the gene that encodes the protein calpain-10 face triple the risk of getting type II diabetes.
By Nathan Seppa -
Earth
River Stats Trickle In: Major floods may be waning in Europe
A new analysis of historical flood records from central Europe suggests that widespread inundations in the region have been on the wane for the past century or so.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
Paper Chased: Cancer-vaccine study is retracted
Researchers in Germany have retracted a paper that reported promising results for a vaccine that elicited immune responses against cancer cells.
By John Travis -
Health & Medicine
Sweet Relief: Comfort food calms, with weighty effect
Chronic stress might drive people to consume comfort foods that can soothe the brain.
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DNA Tie for Two Disorders: Genetic defects link psychiatric ailments
Alterations of genes that produce a protective, fatty coating for brain cells may influence the development of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
Damage Patrol: Enzyme may reveal cancer susceptibility
People with lung cancer show less DNA-repair activity by a certain enzyme than people without the disease do.
By Nathan Seppa -
Physics
Fusion Boost: Promising path to heavy nuclei
By using radioactive nuclei as projectiles in accelerator-based nuclear collisions, scientists may be able to produce more readily than expected many exotic heavy nuclei that are impossible to make today but are crucial for future advances in nuclear physics.
By Peter Weiss -
Astronomy
A Low Note in Cosmos: Sounding out a new role for black holes
Astronomers have for the first time detected sound waves generated by a black hole.
By Ron Cowen