News
- Health & Medicine
Computer sharing tackles anthrax
A drug-discovery effort using more than a million personal computers worldwide has identified thousands of compounds that could form the basis of a cure for anthrax.
- Paleontology
Early hunters are guilty as charged
Scientists find that hunting is the likely cause of New Zealand's prehistoric bird extinctions rather than habitat destruction or pest introduction.
- Computing
Finding networks within networks
A new mathematical procedure, or algorithm, picks out those members within a larger network—for instance, related sites on the World Wide Web—that have especially close ties.
- Health & Medicine
Clot busters may put elderly people at risk
Very elderly people who get clot-dissolving drugs immediately after a heart attack are more likely to die during their hospital stay than similar-age patients who don't get them.
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When brains wring colors from words
Brain-scan data indicate that one type of synesthesia, in which people involuntarily see vivid colors while listening to spoken words, is more like a color hallucination than an attempt to imagine colors.
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Clones face uncertain future
Scientists have cloned a cat, but new studies suggest that cloned animals have shortened lifespans.
- Physics
Computer simulates full nuclear blast
In a classified nuclear-weapon experiment, the world's fastest computer simulated a thermonuclear blast in three dimensions.
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Heads Up: Problem solving pushed bright primates toward bigger brains
A common capacity among primates for solving a broad range of problems, from coordinating social alliances to inventing tools, may have played a central role in the evolution of progressively larger brains.
- Humans
Science Smarts: Talent search honors top student projects in math, science, and engineering
Forty students reaped rewards for their excellence this week when the Intel Science Talent Search handed out the top awards in its 2002 competition for high school seniors.
- Paleontology
Did Mammals Spread from Asia? Carbon blip gives clue to animals’ Eden
A new dating of Chinese fossils buttresses the idea than an Asian Eden gave rise to at least one of the groups of mammal species that appeared in North America some 55 million years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Clever Combo: Hybrid vaccine prevents West Nile virus in mice
A vaccine fashioned from pieces of dengue virus and West Nile virus protects mice against West Nile fever, suggesting it might work in people.
- Health & Medicine
Troubled Hearts: Antibiotic might fend off second attack
An antibiotic might protect people with heart disease from future coronary events, according to the results of a small-scale trial.
