News
- Health & Medicine
Stronger role for a breast cancer drug
Going beyond its original role as an add-on for chemotherapy, the breast cancer drug lapatinib, when taken with another kind of frontline drug, may find use for patients with the HER2-positive form of the cancer.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Study raises worries for zoo-born elephants
Study of captive-born females finds big survival gap between zoo natives and elephants in native ranges.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Gene could drive species separation
Newly identified fruit fly gene provides evidence for “cheating genes” that may cause species schisms
- Earth
Reef record suggests impending Sumatra quakes
Evidence of seafloor rise and fall shows southern Sumatra is at start of new earthquake cycle.
By Sid Perkins - Space
Astronomers zero in on Milky Way’s black hole
Astronomers report a new value for the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center.
By Ron Cowen - Space
Reading ripples in the cosmic microwave background
Researchers analyzing the wiggles imprinted on the cosmic microwave background, the radiation leftover from the Big Bang, have now demonstrated that those wiggles can be used to find the fingerprints of dark energy.
By Ron Cowen - Physics
Superglass could be new state of matter
Simulations of helium-4 show that a superglass, in which atoms flow without friction, is possible.
- Health & Medicine
In the brain, justice is served from many parts
Imaging study reveals variation in brain activity depending on the severity of punishment a person decides.
- Animals
Dolphins wield tools of the sea
A long-term study of dolphins living off Australia’s coast finds that a small number of them, mostly females, frequently use sea sponges to forage for fish on the ocean floor.
By Bruce Bower - Space
New window on the high-energy universe
New telescope finds that the high-energy share of gamma-ray bursts arrive at Earth significantly later than the low-energy portion.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Pollutants in the womb can trigger adult cancers
Mouse study shows fetal exposure to carcinogens may pose long-term risks.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Antioxidants fail to prevent prostate cancer
Selenium, vitamins C, E don’t lower incidence of prostate cancer in two large trials.
By Nathan Seppa