News
- Health & Medicine
Giant rats detect tuberculosis
Animals can be trained to sniff out TB in sputum samples, adding to accuracy of microscope test, a study from Tanzania shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Childhood epilepsy that lasts into adulthood triples mortality
The added risk occurs in patients whose seizures persist, a 40-year study in Finland shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Neandertal relative bred with humans
Known only through DNA extracted from a scrap of bone, a Siberian hominid group suggests a much more complicated prehistory for Homo sapiens.
- Space
South Pole neutrino detector complete
Scientists lower the last of more than 5,000 sensors into the Antarctic ice, completing the mile-deep IceCube observatory.
- Life
Genes separate Africa’s elephant herds
Genetic work reveals forest and savanna pachyderms as distinct species.
- Humans
Periodic table gets some flex
IUPAC committee replaces fuzzy atomic weights with more accurate ranges
- Space
Space rock surprise
Meteorite analysis suggests it may be possible to make amino acids in the absence of water, boosting the chances of finding life elsewhere in the universe.
By Ron Cowen - Life
Gene genesis
About a quarter of present-day life's DNA blueprint had been sketched out by 2.8 billion years ago, a new analysis finds.
- Animals
Female chimps play with ‘dolls’
Youngsters mimic mothering by cradling sticks, reigniting debate over sex differences in toy choices.
By Bruce Bower - Space
Cosmic reincarnation idea may be dead
Cosmological patterns that were recently put forth as evidence for a pre–Big Bang universe are easily explained by current theory, critics say.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
Bugged forests bad for climate
Trees savaged by pine beetles are slow to recover their ecological function as greenhouse gas sponges.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
Hornet pigment drives solar cell in lab
Though far from photosynthetic, an insect's light-harvesting apparatus intrigues scientists.