News
- Health & Medicine
Augmenting the good cholesterol
A reconstituted version of good cholesterol may lessen the amount of plaque that accumulates in arteries and render existing plaque less dangerous.
By Nathan Seppa - Planetary Science
Cavernous findings from Mars
Images taken by a Mars-orbiting spacecraft show what appear to be caves on the Red Planet.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
No Escape: There’s global warming on Mars too
The overall darkening of Mars' surface in recent decades has significantly raised the Red Planet's temperature, a possible cause for the substantial, recent shrinkage of the planet's southern ice cap.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Drug-Resistant Flu Detected: Japanese strains appear transmissible
For the first time, researchers report drug resistance in type B influenza virus and say the drug-resistant strain may jump from person to person.
By Brian Vastag - Health & Medicine
Not-So-Artful Dodgers: Countering drug tests with niacin proves dangerous
Attempts to cleanse illicit drugs from one's body by taking large doses of niacin can cause life-threatening reactions.
By Nathan Seppa - Physics
Formula for Panic: Crowd-motion findings may prevent stampedes
The physics of pedestrian flows could help prevent stampedes such as the one that killed hundreds during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006.
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Mushroom Boom: Hobby records show climate-change boost
Mushrooms in England are starting to pop up earlier and staying around later than they used to, according to 55 years of amateur naturalists' records.
By Susan Milius - Chemistry
That’s a Wrap: Polymer coatings fortify pancreas cells
A technique that encapsulates cells in polymer might one day benefit people who receive pancreas-cell transplants for diabetes.
- Anthropology
Asian Trek: Fossil puts ancient humans in Far East
A 40,000-year-old partial human skeleton from a Chinese cave intensifies a debate over whether Stone Age people dispersing from Africa interbred with humanlike species that they encountered.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Meningitis vaccine stops ear infections
A vaccine for meningitis and pneumonia also prevents many childhood ear infections and the complications that they cause.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Patches take sting out of canker sores
Small patches that exude licorice extract can speed healing of canker sores.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
On the move
A new study suggests how prions, the infectious agents that cause such disorders as chronic wasting disease, behave in soil and landfills.