News

  1. Health & Medicine

    DNA-damaging disinfection by-products found in pool water

    A study detects subtle changes in swimmers’ cells after 40 minutes of laps.

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  2. Psychology

    Video mayhem enlivens decision making

    People who play action-oriented video games show improved ability to make quick decisions based on what they see and hear.

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  3. Space

    Asteroids miss with astronomers

    Close brushes with small objects like the ones that swept past Earth on Wednesday are actually fairly common.

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  4. Dry air might boost flu transmission

    Germs prefer an environment that’s cool, dry and UV-free, experiments suggest.

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  5. Chemistry

    Cockroach brains, coming to a pharmacy near you

    Insect tissue extracts show antibacterial activity in lab experiments.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Defining normal in the brain

    A new growth curve paves way for scans to be used to spot early signs of autism, schizophrenia or other disorders.

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  7. Space

    Mars shows signs of recent activity

    The surface of Mars had abundant liquid water as well as volcanic activity during the past 100 million years, a new study of the Martian atmosphere suggests.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    A cellular secret to long life

    Longevity may depend in part on histones, proteins that keep DNA neatly spooled in the cell’s nucleus and help regulate gene activity.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Mutated gene cited in some ovarian cancers

    The finding may help researchers devise a way to screen women with endometriosis for cancer risk.

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  10. Paleontology

    The hunchback of central Spain

    An exquisitely preserved dinosaur from central Spain has a hump on its back and suggestions of featherlike appendages on its arms. The primitive carnivore lived about 125 million years ago and may push back the first known instance of feathers on the dinosaur family tree.

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  11. Astronomy

    Mars organics get new lease on life

    More than three decades after the Viking mission failed to find compounds necessary for carbon-based life, a new analysis suggests they could actually be present at detectable levels in the planet’s soil.

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  12. Earth

    What lies beneath

    Studies of geology, soils and agricultural demand may prove useful in forecasting the climate effects of deforestation.

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