News
- Health & Medicine
Sense for morphine has gender gap
Female rats have fewer brain receptors that sense morphine, making the drug less effective. The work points to the need for more research on why medicine potency can vary among people.
- Health & Medicine
Experimental drug fends off emphysema in mice
Mice exposed to cigarette smoke and then ed the drug and fended of emphysema, suggesting the edible drug might help ex-smokers.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Buzzing bees protect plant leaves
Honeybee air traffic can interrupt caterpillars' relentless munching.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Warmer oceans would fuel more thunderstorms
Satellite data reveal more thunderheads forming as tropical sea-surface temperatures rise.
By Sid Perkins - Humans
Taking trophy heads close to home
Members of the prehistoric Nasca culture in southern Peru took trophy heads from their own people rather than from foreigners captured in wars or raids, a new biochemical analysis suggests.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Corals, turfgrass and sediments offer stories of climate past and future
Science News reports from San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
For preemies, less is more
Multiple courses of steroid treatment for mom could harm premature babies.
- Health & Medicine
EPA should test demasculinizing pollutants collectively, NRC says
Cumulative effects of phthalates and related compounds likely larger than effects measured one chemical at a time, reports a National Research Council panel.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Dinosaur day care dads
A new study shows some male dinosaurs may have been the primary caretakers of their young.
- Humans
Primates get a neural facial
New brain-imaging studies indicate that similar brain areas coordinate face recognition in people, chimpanzees and macaque monkeys, suggesting that a face-sensitive brain system evolved early in primate evolution.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Bacteria help themselves in damaged lungs
An antibiotic produced by a bacterium acts as a molecular snorkel to help with breathing. The bacterium infects and kills many people with cystic fibrosis, and plugging the snorkel could lead to treatments.
- Health & Medicine
Enzyme inventory affects ovarian cancer outlook
Levels of two enzymes crucial for shutting down genes might clarify the prognosis for ovarian cancer patients, a new study finds.
By Nathan Seppa