News
- Health & Medicine
Blood markers of clogging arteries emerge
The concentration in blood of one chemically transformed cholesterol-carrying molecule may signal to doctors when a patient's heart disease has dangerously worsened.
- Earth
Big dam in China may warm Japan
Construction of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River in China may lead to warmer temperatures in Japan, because any diversion of water for Chinese agriculture could initiate convection in the Japan Sea that brings warmer water to the surface.
- Health & Medicine
Natural antidepressant has its limits
St. John's wort, a popular ingredient in herbal remedies, may not help people with moderate or severe forms of depression.
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Friend or Foe? Old Elephants Know
Older female elephants are far better at telling friends from strangers than are younger matriarchs.
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Radioactive antibodies on the mind
Injecting radioactive antibodies directly into the cavity left after a brain tumor is surgically removed lengthened patients' lives by as much as 40 weeks in a recent study.
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Knotty DNA offers cancer-drug target
Agents that bind to knots in the normally linear DNA sequence seem to prevent the expression of cancer-causing genes.
- Paleontology
Rocks yield clues to flower origins
A distinctive organic chemical related to substances produced by modern flowering plants has been found in ancient fossil-bearing sediments, possibly helping to identify the ancestral plants that gave rise to flowers.
- Paleontology
Fake fossil not one but two new species
A supposed missing link between dinosaurs and birds that was first unveiled in 1999, and revealed to be a forgery soon thereafter, was actually cobbled together from parts of animals from two new species.
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Anticancer mineral works best in food
Selenium's anticancer benefits may depend on ingestion of the mineral in food, not as a purified dietary supplement.
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Keeping antioxidants may spare gut
Inflammatory bowel disease may initially be triggered by chemical reactions that deplete affected tissues of a key antioxidant.
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Pulling antioxidants starves cancers
Realizing that many cancers depend on antioxidants for their survival, researchers have successfully designed a dietary strategy that suppresses breast cancer growth and spread, at least in animals.
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Cigarette smoke worsens heart attacks
Breathing in smoke from another person's cigarette causes blood changes that reduce the likelihood that an individual will survive a heart attack.
