News

  1. Earth

    Is Nessie merely a bad case of the shakes?

    An Italian scientist makes the controversial suggestion that the original source of the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, as well as blame for many of the modern encounters with the supposed beast, may be seismic activity beneath the lake.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Have a heart: Turn on just a single gene

    One gene appears to act as the master switch in embryonic heart formation.

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  3. Earth

    Landfills Make Mercury More Toxic

    Landfill disposal of mercury-containing products can chemically transform the pollutant not only to make it more potent but also to foster its release into air.

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  4. Textbooks brace for nuclear challenge

    New data threaten to shake up 30 years of scientific dogma regarding how a cell carries out one of its most basic tasks: the translation of the genetic code into proteins.

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  5. Killer yeast win epic battle of toxins

    Researchers have discovered the molecular mechanism that keeps a yeast cell programed by a virus to spew a toxin that kills neighboring yeast cells from killing itself.

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  6. Earth

    A foamy threat to ozone

    Shredding the foam insulation in discarded refrigerators can release significant quantities of chlorofluorocarbons, which pose a threat to Earth's protective ozone layer.

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  7. Earth

    Blood points to pollution’s heart risks

    As airborne concentrations of fine dust particles climb, so do three blood factors that increase an individual's heart attack risk.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin E benefits cattle, too

    Vitamin E aids immune system function and prevents growth declines in cattle, offering an alternative to potentially dangerous use of low-dose antibiotics.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Insight into preemies’ blindness

    Lack of a growth factor called IGF-1 has been implicated as a trigger for a disease that can cause vision problems, including blindness, in premature babies.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Alzheimer’s damage might start off early

    Copper and free radicals may initiate the brain damage of Alzheimer's disease long before its hallmark protein plaques have formed.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Seemingly safer steroid mimics

    A glucocorticoid mimic may offer the autoinflammatory effects of steroids with fewer side effects.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Boning up with vitamin E

    Vitamin E may ward off osteoporisis—at least in mice.

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