News
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Do oxpeckers help or mostly just freeload?
A textbook example of mutualism—birds that ride around picking ticks off big African mammals—may not be mutually beneficial at all.
By Susan Milius -
Placebos for depression attract scrutiny
FDA clinical trials suggest that placebos provide substantial relief to depressed patients, but debate continues about whether it's ethical to use placebos in studies of antidepressant drugs.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine‘Bubble’ babies thrive on gene therapy
Gene therapy to repair mutations that thwart development of essential immune cells has helped three babies to overcome severe combined immunodeficiency, in which a child is born without a functional immune system.
By Nathan Seppa -
AstronomyHefty Discovery: Finding a Kuiper belt king
A newly discovered celestial body appears to be the largest object that scientists have found in the solar system since their detection of Pluto in 1930.