News
- Life
Frog builds toes, then legs
A small frog appears to jump-start its skeletal development, turning on genes for building feet and toes before bothering to build its legs.
- Paleontology
Fossils, now available in color
Fossilized feathers of an early bird or dinosaur may retain evidence of pigment, offering a chance to animal colors of the Cretaceous.
- Health & Medicine
Location matters
Scientists find the role of dopamine varies from one end of a brain region to another.
- Health & Medicine
Risk profile for diabetes
People who harbor excess amounts of the compound fetuin-A face a heightened risk of developing diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer and college
Highly educated people have reaped the benefits of cancer prevention and treatment. Death rates in this group have fallen, but people with less education have missed out on these gains.
- Anthropology
Loud and clear
Skulls of Neandertal ancestors show the prehistoric humans had a hearing capacity similar to present-day people, suggesting human speech could have originated much earlier than previously thought.
- Health & Medicine
Shared recipes for longer life
Being female and eating a calorie-restricted diet contribute to long lifespan in animals, and the two traits may share molecular mechanisms.
- Life
Seeing without eyes
Scientists are looking into the cellular pathways that allow an eyeless roundworm to see.
- Math
Strategy to stop a pandemic
A limited supply of vaccine shots, if targeted well, could stop the spread of disease.
- Psychology
Lie defectives
A new analysis challenges the view that a few people with special experience can detect others’ lies with great accuracy.
- Agriculture
Farm life turns male toads female
A detailed inventory of toads in Florida finds that, as land becomes more agricultural, more cane toads resemble females both inside and out.
- Health & Medicine
SIDS and serotonin
Study finds brain chemical deficiency causing sudden death in mice could be linked to SIDS
