News
- Life
Genes are no crystal ball for disease risk
For most conditions, knowing a person’s entire genetic makeup won’t help predict his or her medical history.
- Life
Virus proves protective against lupus in mice
A mouse version of Epstein-Barr seems to prevent, not trigger, symptoms of the autoimmune disease.
- Life
Old cancer drugs offer new tricks
Drugs that reboot genetic programming make tumor cells more susceptible to cancer-killing therapy.
- Health & Medicine
Jolt to brain aids language recovery
Stroke patients treated with brain stimulation show improvement in language skills.
- Humans
From the ashes, the oldest controlled fire
A South Africa cave yields the oldest secure evidence for a blaze controlled by human ancestors.
By Bruce Bower - Astronomy
New data support Einstein on accelerating universe
New measurements of distant galaxies support Einstein’s cosmological constant as the explanation for the universe’s accelerating expansion.
- Health & Medicine
Brain scan foretells who will fold under pressure
Tests on high-stakes math problems reveal key regions of brain activity linked to choking under pressure.
- Chemistry
For truffle aroma, it’s not all about location
Genes, not environment, play a key role in the prized fungus’s scent.
- Life
Pesticide-dosed bees lose future royalty, way home
Unusual field tests reveal how common insecticides, even at nonfatal doses, can erode colonies and threaten the future of bumblebees and honeybees.
By Susan Milius - Chemistry
Life’s building blocks grow close to home
Chemical reactions in the early solar system create complex organic molecules.
By Nadia Drake - Health & Medicine
Mapping the brain’s superhighways
New scans created using diffusion MRI technique reveal an order to information flow in the mind.
- Physics
Cloaks for hiding heat
A proposed invisibility cloak for heat could shield computers or satellites from high temperatures.