News
- Health & Medicine
Brain reads word-by-word
The brain reads words as whole units and processes the information quickly, two studies suggest.
- Health & Medicine
New weapon fights hepatitis C
Taking the experimental drug telaprevir with standard medications for hepatitis C clears the virus from patients’ blood better than the standard combination alone.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
A limit for carbon emissions: 1 trillion metric tons
To reduce risks of severe damage from climate change, humans should burn no more than 1 trillion tons of carbon in total, researchers suggest.
By Sid Perkins - Life
Connectivity may play role in autism
Large studies of autism suggest connections between neurons are the culprit.
- Life
Mimivirus up close
Scientists get a closer look at the structure of mimivirus, the largest virus in the world.
- Humans
Obama pledges 3 percent of GDP for research
BLOG: Highlights of what the president announced to the National Academy of Sciences.
By Janet Raloff - Space
Most distant known object in the universe
Astronomers have discovered a gamma-ray burst emanating 13.035 billion light-years from Earth, making it the universe's most distant known object.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Swine flu outbreak likely to continue, officials say
Even as public health data on the new outbreak change daily, biological information on the mysterious virus remains scant.
By Nathan Seppa - Animals
Caterpillars’ chirp could be scary
Larvae of great peacock moths might signal that they’ll put up a fight.
By Susan Milius - Plants
Climatic effects of tree-killing hurricanes
A new analysis suggests storm damage returns millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.
By Sid Perkins - Life
Function for green fluorescent protein
Scientists find that the glowing molecule also passes electrons, offering a new clue about the natural function of a protein that's become ubiquitous in molecular biology.
- Psychology
Males, females swap sex-role stereotypes
Analysis finds that mating strategies are not universal
By Bruce Bower