News
- Life
Birds catching malaria in Alaska
The mosquito-spread disease may be transmitted north of the Arctic Circle as climate shifts.
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2012 International Astronomical Union General Assembly
Science News’ coverage of the IAU meeting held August 20-21 in Beijing.
- Neuroscience
Nonstick trick in the brain
Getting drugs into the brain has proved to be a nanoscale puzzle: Anything bigger than 64 nanometers — about the size of a small virus — gets stuck in the space between brain cells once it gets through the blood-brain barrier. Justin Hanes of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues got around this rule by coating particles destined for brain cells in a dense layer of a polymer called polyethylene glycol.
- Humans
Africans’ genes mute on human birthplace
Latest DNA studies confirm previous research on the prehistory of African groups, but still can’t locate the root of the species.
- Humans
A moving lift for poor families
Federal housing subsidies didn’t fight poverty as hoped, but trading public housing for new neighborhoods brought psychological benefits.
- Math
Bumblebees navigate new turf without a map
The insects can quickly calculate the best route between flowers.
- Life
E. coli caught in the act of evolving
Researchers track thousands of bacterial generations to document the development of a trait nearly 25 years in the making.
- Health & Medicine
Oral MS drug passes tests
A drug called BG-12, similar to a psoriasis medicine used in Germany, supresses multiple sclerosis relapses well, two studies find.
- Health & Medicine
Gamblers go all-in on Ritalin
Risk-taking may rise when healthy people use the stimulant to boost concentration.
- Life
DNA tags may dictate bee behavior
Chemical alterations affect genetic activity but not the genes themselves.
- Life
Flash leads to flex in lab-grown muscle
Light-activated artificial tissue inspires dream of squirming wormbots.
- Physics
Uncertainty not so certain after all
Lab experiments undermine the first formulation of Heisenberg’s famous physics principle, but leave its broader implications intact.
