News
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Encouraging signs but no woodpecker
A birding team searching in Louisiana for the possibly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker heard a promising pattern of taps but did not see the bird or hear it calling.
By Susan Milius -
Health & Medicine
Vaccine Power: Immune cells target cancerous tissue
Researchers are enlisting a person's own immune system to attack prostate tissue, including cancerous cells.
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Ecosystems
Cryptic Invasion: Native reeds harbor aggressive alien
A mild-mannered reed native to the United States is getting blamed for the mayhem caused by an evil twin.
By Susan Milius -
Humans
And Counting . . . : Latest census resets U.S. population clock
The 2000 census missed a little more than 1 percent of the nation’s population, due in part to a surge of undocumented immigrants to the United States in the late 1990s.
By Sid Perkins -
Archaeology
Almond Joy, Stone Age Style: Our ancestors had a bash eating wild nuts
New finds at a 780,000-year-old Israeli site indicate that its ancient residents used stone tools to crack open a variety of hard-shelled nuts that were gathered as a dietary staple.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
Suspicious DNA: Chromosome study homes in on Alzheimer’s disease
Several human chromosomes now face intensified scrutiny for possibly harboring genes involved in Alzheimer's disease.
By Ben Harder -
Tech
Beam Team: Unusual laser emits a band of light
A novel laser on a microchip emits a band of light rather than the single, pure color usually expected from a laser.
By Peter Weiss -
Health & Medicine
Chill Out: Mild hypothermia aids heart attack recovery
Icing down patients who have just had a heart stoppage may boost their survival chances and prevent brain damage in those who pull through.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
Indoor tanning ups all skin cancer rates
Artificial sunbathing using ultraviolet lights increases the risk of all types of skin cancer.
By Ben Harder -
Physics
A new way to stick it to flies
Researchers have measured the amount of static charge that a walking house fly generates.
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Earth
Shuttle yields detailed, 3-D atlas
NASA scientists and Defense Department mapmakers are assembling billions of radar measurements made from the space shuttle Endeavour to produce what they say will be the world’s best topographic map.
By Sid Perkins -
Paleontology
Dinosaur tracks show walking and running
A single trail of dinosaur footprints found in a British limestone quarry preserves a record of two different walking styles in the same animal, a tantalizing clue that some types of lumbering, bipedal dinosaurs could also run if the need arose.
By Sid Perkins