News
- Life
Aging gets with the program
A study on yeast organisms reveals checkpoints in the aging process: the buildup of certain lipids and fatty acids, and the health of the cell's powerhouses. Drugs could target these checkpoints.
- Life
Extreme preservation gives fly’s eye view
The cell-by-cell detail of a 45 million-year–old retina is preserved in amber
By Susan Milius - Earth
Severe heat and cold top list of deadly natural hazards
Data compilation by region, type of hazards shows deaths from more frequent events accumulate into significant numbers. Lightning strikes also high on the list.
- Earth
Solar wind pushes atmospheric breathing
New analyses of satellite data show that cycles of expansion and contraction are tied to changes in the solar wind.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Dual therapy best for nasty prostate cancer
Dual therapy that adds radiation to medication for aggressive prostate cancer yields better survival and fewer signs of relapse than drugs alone, a large Scandinavian clinical trial finds.
By Nathan Seppa - Space
Dark energy constantly with us
New X-ray and visible-light observations of the growth of galaxy groups and clusters are offering confirming evidence for the existence of dark energy and suggest that it may resemble the cosmological constant.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Potentially potent chemo target in sight
A fruit fly protein that helps control cell differentiation may be a powerful target for stopping human cancers.
- Health & Medicine
Breast cancer costs poor people more
Out-of-pocket costs of breast cancer hit poor individuals the hardest.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Soy compound revs up cancer fighter in healthy tissue
A lab study of healthy breast tissue cells shows increases in the tumor suppressor protein PTEN in the presence of soy isoflavone genistein, a compound believed to fight breast cancer.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Breast density signals tamoxifen’s effectiveness
Decreasing breast density signals the drug tamoxifen is working in women at risk of developing breast cancer.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists
DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes.
By Susan Milius - Archaeology
Tools with handles even more ancient
An analysis of stone tools excavated at a Syrian site indicates that, around 70,000 years ago, Neandertals used a tarlike adhesive to affix sharpened items to handles.
By Bruce Bower