News
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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.
- Anthropology
. . . and then takes some lumps
The skeletal diversity that many scientists use to divide up fossil species in our evolutionary past masks a genetic unity that actually encompassed relatively few species, contend researchers in an opposing camp.
- Anthropology
Our family tree does the splits…
Large-scale changes in climate and habitats may have sparked the evolution of many new animal species in Africa beginning 7 million to 5 million years ago, including a string of new species in the human evolutionary family.
- Humans
Biomedicine, defense to sidestep budget ax
President Bush's first budget request would boost funding for biomedical and military research but trim federal outlays for other areas of science and technology.
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Lifestyles of the bright and toxic overlap
The first study of home life for Madagascar's poison frogs in the wild finds a striking resemblance to a group that's not closely related, the poison-dart frogs in the Americas.
- Chemistry
Liver cells thrive on novel silicon chips
Researchers have coaxed finicky liver cells to grow on porous silicon chips, a feat that could lead to new medical treatments.
