News
- Health & Medicine
Antioxidants + heart drugs = bad medicine?
Taking dietary antioxidant supplements along with certain cholesterol-regulating drugs may diminish the effectiveness of those drugs in boosting the so-called good cholesterol.
- Health & Medicine
Insect-saliva vaccine thwarts parasite
Mice inoculated with a component of sand fly saliva develop immunity to Leishmania, a protozoan that infects hundreds of thousands of people in the tropics each year.
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The trouble with small male spiders
A test of an old view of sexual cannibalism—that it's a way of rejecting suitors—finds that small males lose out, but not from attacks by females.
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Funnel-web males send knockouts in air
Male funnel-web spiders seem to waft some kind of gas toward females that renders the females limp, enabling the males to mate without being eaten.
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River dolphins can whistle, too, sort of
In the most elaborate attempt so far to eavesdrop on Brazil's pink river dolphins, researchers have detected what may be a counterpart to seafaring dolphins' whistles.
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Do parents with extra help goof off?
When researchers stepped in to help feed baby sparrows, the parents did not slack off but brought even more food.
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New robot frog gets into fights
Researchers have finally managed to build a robot frog that can provoke male frogs to attack.
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Nursing moms face meds dilemma
A research review yields a little advice and a lot of uncertainty for nursing mothers with mental disorders who may expose their babies to potential dangers if they take prescribed psychoactive drugs.
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Medicinal mirth gets research rebuke
Little scientific evidence to date supports any of the purported physical health benefits of laughter and humor, a psychologist concludes.
- Health & Medicine
Chemotherapy leads to bone loss
In women with early-stage breast cancer, malfunctioning ovaries and significant bone loss can occur within 6 months of chemotherapy treatment.
- Health & Medicine
Inflammation linked to diabetes
Women who go on to develop diabetes seem to have signs of widespread, low-level inflammation years before they have symptoms of the disease.
- Ecosystems
Fish stocking may transmit toad disease
Hatchery-raised trout can transfer a deadly fungus to western toads, bolstering the view that fish stocking may play a role in amphibian population declines.
