News
- Life
Tasmanian devil disease reveals its secrets
The contagious cancer evades the animal’s immune system by turning off key genes.
- Tech
Facebook ‘likes’ can reveal users’ politics, sexual orientation, IQ
With data from thousands of volunteers, researchers connect social media activity to personal traits.
- Humans
Ancient people and Neandertals were extreme travelers
Stone Age folk were built for journeying farther than even the most active individuals today.
- Neuroscience
Heavy drinkers get extra brain fuel from alcohol
Compared with the brains of light drinkers, the brains of heavy alcohol drinkers burn acetate better.
- Chemistry
Caffeine’s buzz attracts bees to flowers
Nectar of some blooms carries the drug, which improves bee memory.
- Life
Alga borrows genes to beat the heat, acid and toxic metals
Such genetic theft from bacteria and archaea is unusual among eukaryotes.
- Life
Mice get brain boost from transplanted human tissue
An experimental transplant of what have long been considered just support cells shows they may play a role in memory and learning.
- Space
No vacancy around stars
The Milky Way’s planets pack tightly around their stars, according to simulations using data from the Kepler space telescope.
- Physics
Vortex gets tied in knots
Physicists use 3-D printing and tiny bubbles to capture twisted-up water.
- Health & Medicine
Immune cells chow down on living brain
Microglia prune developing rat and monkey brains by eating neural stem cells.
- Life
Camel ancestors lived in the Arctic
Fossils on Ellesmere Island suggest famous desert dweller got its start in cold regions.
- Health & Medicine
Baby may be cured of HIV
Only viral traces remain after prompt treatment of newborn, suggesting no working virus is left in the girl’s body.
