News
- Health & Medicine
Autopsies suggest insulin is underused
Autopsy studies indicate that the insulin-producing cells of people with type II diabetes are damaged.
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Autism leaves kids lost in face
Brain-wave evidence indicates that 3- to 4-year-old children diagnosed with autism can't tell their mothers' faces from those of female strangers.
By Bruce Bower - Tech
Putting squish into artificial organs
Artificial organs and tissues may someday feel more like the real thing if a new, rubbery polymer supplants mostly stiff materials available today for tissue engineering.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Cell-Phone Buzz: Contradictory studies heat up radiation question
A new long-term animal study of cell-phone radiation suggests that emissions don't cause cancer, but studies by a second team hint that cell phones may cause damage in other ways.
- Animals
Wasp Painting: Do insects know each other’s faces?
A researcher who dabbed tiny stripes on the faces and abdomens of paper wasps says that she's found the first evidence that the insects can recognize individuals by their markings.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Kill or Be Killed: Tumor protein offs patrolling immune cells
Many human cancers may evade surveillance by exploiting a protein normally found on certain immune cells.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Rewiring Job: Drug spurs nerve growth in stroke-damaged brains
The natural compound inosine spurs nerve reconnection in rats that have suffered the loss of blood to parts of the brain, suggesting inosine might help people recover from a stroke.
By Nathan Seppa - Paleontology
Rain Forest Primeval? Colorado fossils show unexpected diversity
The size, shape, and riotous variety of fossil leaves unearthed at a site in central Colorado suggest that the region may have been covered with one of the world's first tropical rain forests just 1.4 million years after the demise of the dinosaurs.
By Sid Perkins - Physics
U.S. time now flows from atom fountain
The United States has switched to the atomic fountain clock, which sets itself according to the resonant frequency of rising and falling balls of cold cesium.
By Peter Weiss - Physics
Magnets trap neutrons for a lifetime
A new device that uses magnets to trap neutrons may enable physicists to measure more precisely how quickly free neutrons decay, a time period with implications for understanding both the weak force and the early universe.
By Peter Weiss -
Social thinking in schizophrenia
Training that fosters thinking skills in social situations may improve attention, memory, and social skills of people with schizophrenia.
By Bruce Bower -
Readers’ brains go native
Brain functions linked to reading reflect cultural differences in spelling systems.
By Bruce Bower