News
- Health & Medicine
Making the heart burn
Burning chest pain during a heart attack may stem from a protein that also responds to chili peppers.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Coronary Fix: Coated inserts keep vessels unclogged
Mesh cylinders called stents, which doctors use to prop open coronary arteries, work better when they are coated with sirolimus, a drug that inhibits the accumulation of cells along the device.
By Nathan Seppa - Planetary Science
News Splash: Strong evidence of lakes on Titan
Using Earth-based radar to penetrate the thick atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, planetary scientists have the best evidence yet that the smog-shrouded moon has lakes or oceans of hydrocarbons over large stretches of its surface.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
North vs. Northwest: Lewis and Clark diaries provide directional clue
Observations from the Lewis and Clark expedition may offer insight into Earth's magnetic field.
- Health & Medicine
Timing That First Spoonful: Diabetes risk reflects when cereals enter infant diet
The timing of cereals' introduction into children's diets may affect their risk of developing type 1 diabetes, two studies suggest.
By Ben Harder - Anthropology
Y Trail of the First Americans: DNA data point to late New World entry
Scientists identified a gene variant on the Y chromosome that allowed them to estimate that people first reached the Americas no earlier than about 18,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Volcanic Legacy: Tortoises chronicle eruption in their genes
An ancient volcanic eruption in the Galápagos Islands left its legacy in the diminished genetic diversity of one subspecies of the archipelago's famed giant tortoises.
By Sid Perkins - Animals
Carnivores in Captivity: Size of range in wild may predict risk in zoo
A survey of zoo reports of troubled animals suggests that the minimum size of a species' range predicts how well it will adapt to captivity.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
One bug’s bane may be another’s break
People who carry pneumococcus bacteria in their nasal passages may be partially protected against having their noses colonized by Staphylococcus aureus.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Drug combination unexpectedly flops
A combination of therapies that researchers anticipated would work well against HIV failed to stop the virus from replicating in more than half the volunteers who received it.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Resistant staph spreads in communities
Antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus—once a problem limited mainly to health care settings—has become a menace in communities around the world.
By Ben Harder -
Toronto travelers wash their hands of disease
Air travelers in Toronto, which experienced an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak earlier this year, are more likely to wash their hands after using public restrooms than are travelers in other major North American airports.
By Ben Harder