News
- Life
Choose your own splicer
Zinc-finger proteins can cut, splice or tweak a targeted gene, and a new “open source” method for making customized zinc-finger proteins aimed at specific genes will give scientists easier access to this powerful genetic tool.
- Plants
Fugitives spread bumblebee diseases
Pathogens hitchhike on commercial bees that escape from greenhouses. These escapees bring disease to wild bumblebees.
- Health & Medicine
New HIV inhibitor
A new HIV drug can, when combined with other therapies, suppress even the most drug-resistant strains of the virus that causes AIDS, scientists report in two papers in the July 24 New England Journal of Medicine.
- Health & Medicine
Statin snag
A gene variant explains why some people get muscle pains from cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins.
- Plants
Parasitic plant gets more than a meal
The parasitic vine known as dodder really sucks. It pierces the tissue of other plants — some of which are important crops — extracting water and nutrients needed for its own growth. But it also consumes molecules that scientists could manipulate to bring on the parasite’s demise.
- Plants
Parasite Godzilla
Parasites are small but have a big impact. An estuary study reveals that these little annoyances add up to a lot of biomass.
- Chemistry
Quantum physics makes water different
The length of bonds connecting water molecules could demonstrate quantum effects and help explain some of water’s weirdness.
- Health & Medicine
Viagra and women
Viagra eases some sexual problems for women taking antidepressants
- Earth
Seafloor chronicles
Survey of ocean floor reveals long history, from a geological fault to the wreckage of the Lusitania.
- Space
Makemake makes the list
The International Astronomical Union announces name of a fourth dwarf planet.
- Life
Magnetic sense linked to molecule
Fruit fly experiments shed light on animals’ use of Earth’s magnetic field for orientation and navigation.
- Health & Medicine
MapQuest for the mouse spinal cord
The Allen Institute for Brain Science unveils an online atlas of the mouse spinal cord. The atlas is a tool for researchers studying spinal cord injury, disease and development.
