News
- Genetics
Hybrid protein offers malaria protection
Rare hybrid protein that spans red blood cell membranes offers some protection against malaria.
- Health & Medicine
Transplanted stem cells become eggs in sterile mice
Sterile mice that received transplanted egg-making stem cells were able to have healthy babies.
- Environment
When it’s hot, plants become a surprisingly large source of air pollution
During a heat wave, trees and shrubs can sharply raise ozone levels, a new study shows.
- Animals
Orangutans take motherhood to extremes, nursing young for more than eight years
Weaning in orangutans has been tricky to see in the wild, so researchers turned to dental tests to reveal long nursing period.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Where you live can affect your blood pressure, study suggests
For black adults, moving out of a racially segregated neighborhood is linked to a drop in blood pressure, a new study finds.
- Physics
Naked singularity might evade cosmic censor
Physicists demonstrate the possibility of a “naked” singularity in curved space.
- Genetics
Selfish genes hide for decades in plain sight of worm geneticists
Crossing wild Hawaiian C. elegans with the familiar lab strain reveals genes that benefit themselves by making mother worms poison offspring who haven’t inherited the right stuff.
By Susan Milius - Planetary Science
Watery exoplanet’s skies suggest unexpected origin story
Compared with Neptune, HAT-P-26b’s atmosphere has few heavy elements, suggesting it formed differently than the ice giants in Earth’s solar system.
- Paleontology
Ancient whale tells tale of when baleen whales had teeth
A 36 million-year-old whale fossil bridges the gap between ancient toothy predators and modern filter-feeding baleen whales.
- Health & Medicine
‘Exercise pill’ turns couch potato mice into marathoners
An experimental "exercise in a pill" increases running endurance in mice before they step foot on a treadmill.
By Laura Beil - Health & Medicine
New rules for cellular entry may aid antibiotic development
A new study lays out several rules to successfully enter gram-negative bacteria, which could lead to the development of sorely needed antibiotics.
- Animals
Seabirds use preening to decide how to divvy up parenting duties
Seabirds in poor condition may communicate this information to their partner by delaying or withholding preening.