News
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Dog Sense: Domestication gave canines innate insight into human gestures
Dogs may have acquired an innate ability to understand human body language after they were domesticated.
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Three Dog Eves: Canine diaspora from East Asia to Americas
Genetic studies have moved the origins of dog domestication from the Middle East to East Asia and suggest that the first people to venture into the Americas brought their dogs with them.
- Health & Medicine
Virus Stopper: Vaccine could prevent most cervical cancers
A vaccine fashioned from a protein found on human papillomavirus-16 protects women from long-term viral infections that can lead to cervical cancer.
- Earth
Bursting in Air: Satellites tally small asteroid hits
On average, a small asteroid slams into Earth's atmosphere and explodes with the energy of 1,000 Hiroshima-size blasts once every thousand years or so, a rate that is less than one-third as high as scientists previously supposed.
- Planetary Science
Leapin’ Lava! Volcanic eruption on Io breaks the record
Pointing a ground-based telescope at Jupiter's moon Io, astronomers have recorded the most powerful volcano ever observed in the solar system.
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Life or Death: Immune genes determine outcome of strep infection
Subtle variations among people's immune genes may largely account for radically different outcomes when people get a strep infection.
- Health & Medicine
Gene change linked to poor memory
A subtle change in a gene encoding a brain chemical may give some people better memory skills than others.
- Health & Medicine
Slow brain repair seen in Huntington’s
In people with Huntington's disease, the brain tries to replace dying nerve cells.
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Scanning a brain that’s out of tune
Scientists have scanned the brain of a man who had great difficulty playing a tune and showed that his brain doesn't react normally to music.
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Mutant mice resist morphine’s appeal
A protein on nerve cells appears to be the key to developing morphine addiction.
- Health & Medicine
Gene may keep breast cancer at bay
Scientists have identified a gene that seems to protect against some common breast cancers.
- Tech
Hidden Costs: It takes much stuff to make one tiny chip
A new analysis reveals that the production of a single 2-gram microchip requires nearly 2 kilograms of chemicals and fossil fuels.
