News
- Life
Drugs activate dormant gene
A compound that blocks DNA unwinding can spur production of a critical brain protein in mice, leading to hope for a therapy for Angelman syndrome.
- Astronomy
Toasty planets circle stellar heart
Roasted remains orbit former red giant.
By Nadia Drake - Space
First Earth-sized planets netted
The Kepler space telescope gets one step closer to its mission of discovering habitable worlds by finding two orbs of terrestrial proportions orbiting a distant sunlike star.
By Nadia Drake - Humans
Fewer fires in Africa these days
How flames spread, not how frequently people start them, controls burning on the continent.
- Life
BPA sends false signals to female hearts
The ingredient of some plastics and food packaging can interfere with cardiac rhythm at surprisingly low concentrations.
By Janet Raloff -
- Humans
Smells like a bear raid
Analysis of stock trading data suggests an effort to manipulate the market in 2007.
- Psychology
Face deficit holds object lesson
A brain-damaged man yields controversial clues to how people identify complex objects.
By Bruce Bower - Life
The electric mole rat acid test
Naked mole rats don’t feel the burn of acid thanks to tweaks in a protein involved in sending pain messages to the brain.
- Humans
Uncommitted newbies can foil forceful few
Decisions more democratic when individuals with no preset preference join a group.
By Susan Milius - Life
Borneo tough for red-haired vegans
Island’s natural fruit supply iffy for orangutans.
By Susan Milius - Life
Walking may have had wet start
Based on the way that primitive lungfish use their fins to move along tank bottoms, researchers argue for an underwater start to four-legged locomotion.
By Nick Bascom