News
- Anthropology
Pieces of a Disputed Past: Fossil finds enter row over humanity’s roots
Two new fossil discoveries have fueled scientific debates about the evolutionary status of a pair of species traditionally considered to have been our direct ancestors, Homo habilis and Homo erectus.
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Stem Cell Surprise: Blood cells form liver, nerve cells
Human blood contains stem cells that can be transformed outside the body into a variety of cell types, suggesting that a person's blood could someday provide replacement cells for that individual's damaged brain or kidney.
- Materials Science
Technique may yield vocal cord stand-in
A plastic material used in some biological implants could someday form a foundation for tissue that can repair or replace human vocal cords.
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Good taste in men linked to colon risks
Men with exceptionally sensitive powers of taste may face extra health risks, such as colon cancer.
- Health & Medicine
HIV in breast milk can be drug resistant
HIV-positive women who receive the drug nevirapine during pregnancy often have HIV that is resistant to the drug in their breast milk after they give birth.
- Health & Medicine
Designer RNA stalls hepatitis in mice
Using strips of synthetic RNA that interfere with normal gene action, scientists working with mice have stopped the progression of hepatitis.
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Dolly, first cloned mammal, is dead
Dolly, the first clone of an adult mammal, has been euthanized after acquiring a severe lung infection.
- Materials Science
Ceramic rebounds from stressful situations
The ceramic titanium silicon carbide can fully recover after being compressed to a degree that would leave most ceramics shattered and most metals permanently deformed.
- Chemistry
A safer antioxidant?
Scientists have developed a synthetic antioxidant that won't, at high doses, foster the tissue damage the compounds are meant to prevent.
- Tech
Worms may spin silk fit for skin
Silk cocoons could become puffs of valuable human proteins if a new bioengineering method pans out.
- Physics
New equation fits nitrogen to a T
An elaborate, new equation that yields more accurate values for nitrogen's properties might have a multimillion-dollar impact in the cryogenic fluids industry.
- Physics
Gecko toes tap intermolecular bonds
For scurrying upside down on smooth ceilings and other gravity-defying feats, lizards known as geckos may exploit intermolecular forces between the surface and billions of tiny stalks under their toes.
