News
- Life
Python’s heart-restoring elixir works in mice
A chemical brew used by snakes to build cardiac muscle could have medical applications.
By Susan Milius - Space
Chronicles of Lutetia
The surprising composition and terrain of an asteroid may provide a variety of lessons about the solar system.
By Nadia Drake - Life
Giant dinosaurs may have migrated
Evidence in teeth suggests that sauropods sought greener pastures in dry North American summers.
By Nick Bascom - Health & Medicine
HPV vaccine recommended for boys
A federal panel expands the reach of shots as a separate new study shows the immunizations prevent precancerous anal lesions.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
A particulate threat to diabetics
As levels of soot and other fine air pollutants increased, so did blood pressure in patients whose disease was not well-controlled, a study finds.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Cause confirmed in bat scourge
White-nose syndrome has devastated bat population in eastern North America.
By Susan Milius - Life
Gut bacteria linked to MS
Gut bacteria appear to play a role in initiating multiple sclerosis in mice.
- Life
Gene makes some pilots get rusty faster
A common DNA variant affects the pace of age-related decline in performance on skilled tasks like flying a plane.
- Humans
Early farmers’ fishy menu
Northern Europeans retained a taste for aquatic foods after farmers arrived 6,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Measles cases up in U.S. and Canada
Both countries report 2011 to be the worst year since the mid-1990s.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Cycads not ‘living fossils’
Though ancient, today’s representatives of the plant group date back to a common ancestor that lived not all that long ago.
By Nick Bascom - Life
Live long, pass it on
A tendency for a lengthy life can be inherited for several generations, even when offspring no longer have the genes for it.