News
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Earth
Coral-killing army recruits human bugs
The army of pathogens responsible for black band disease, which kills corals, contains some human bacteria that polluted waters carry out to sea.
By Ben Harder -
Earth
Greeks sailed into ancient Trojan bay
A combination of sedimentary analysis and careful reading of classical literature helps pinpoint where the Greek fleet that attacked Troy came ashore.
By Ben Harder -
Earth
Warm spell did little for Eocene flora
A rapid warming period that began the Eocene epoch dramatically reshaped North America's animal community but not the continent's plants.
By Ben Harder -
Sight sounds off in brains of the deaf
Deprive the brain of access to sounds, and it reorganizes so that tissue typically consigned to handling acoustic information instead joins the visual system.
By Bruce Bower -
Babies show an eye for faces
By 9 weeks of age, babies can learn to recognize and favor a new face in a matter of minutes.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
Genomes of dangerous bacteria exposed
Researchers unveiled the genomes of bacteria that cause severe food poisoning, typhoid fever, and the plague that devastated the Middle Ages.
By John Travis -
Health & Medicine
Cancer drugs may thwart Huntington’s
Drugs developed to fight cancer could also be effective against Huntington's disease and several related neurodegenerative conditions.
By John Travis -
Earth
Tube worms like it hot, but larvae not
The larvae of some tube worms that attach themselves to the seafloor around hydrothermal vents can't stand the heat there, but they go into a state of suspended animation when they drift into the chilly water nearby.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Desert glass: Is it baked Australia?
A profusion of fused, glassy material found on the desert plain of southern Australia might be the result of the intense heat from an extraterrestrial impact.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
Heart pump extends patients’ survival
Patients who have an implanted device to help the heart pump blood have a higher survival rate than patients getting only heart medication.
By Nathan Seppa -
Astronomy
SOHO craft gets the lowdown on sunspots
Using sound waves to obtain the first clear picture of the structure beneath the surface of a sunspot, scientists say they now have an explanation for why these dark blemishes-sites of intense magnetic activity-can persist for days.
By Ron Cowen -
Archaeology
Farmers took fast track in settling Europe
A review of radiocarbon evidence indicates that farming groups colonized southern Europe over no more than 100 to 200 years, beginning around 7,400 years ago.
By Bruce Bower