News
- Health & Medicine
Fungus produces cancer drug
Several varieties of fungi that attack hazelnuts produce high quantities of the popular cancer drug paclitaxel.
- Physics
Breaking a molecule’s mirror image
The theory of entanglement explains a newly observed behavior in a symmetrical hydrogen molecule: When the molecule fractures, the directions in which its constituent particles move are not always random.
- Health & Medicine
How antipsychotic drugs can cause weight gain
A study of mice has identified a biological mechanism by which medications called atypical antipsychotics cause people to gain weight.
- Anthropology
New age for ancient Americans
New radiocarbon dates indicate that the Clovis people, long considered the first well-documented settlers of the New World, inhabited North America considerably later and for a much shorter time than previously thought.
- Chemistry
Lighting up for uranium
A portable sensor could make it possible to rapidly detect environmental uranium contamination.
- Ecosystems
Warming Sign? Larger dead zones form off Oregon coast
Unprecedented recent changes in the yearly pattern of ocean currents off North America's West Coast have wreaked havoc on aquatic ecosystems there, another possible symptom of Earth's warming climate.
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Decoding Autism: Study finds DNA clues to developmental disorders
New results direct the search for autism-influencing genes to a previously overlooked DNA segment and highlight the role of a crucial chemical-messenger system in creating brains susceptible to autism.
- Animals
Bird Plans: Jays show foresight in breakfast menus
The strongest evidence yet that animals plan ahead may come from western scrub jays preparing for their morning meals.
- Health & Medicine
Virus Stopper: Herpes drug dampens HIV infection
An antiviral drug commonly taken for genital herpes seems to suppress HIV in people harboring both pathogens.
- Health & Medicine
Hurt-Knees Rx: Surgical method promotes ligament regeneration
A new artificial knee ligament that sparks regeneration of natural tissue could eventually make recovering from knee-repair surgery less painful and debilitating.
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Weight Matters: Big and little mouse pups become obese adults
Being either overnourished or undernourished before birth can alter gene activity, leading to obesity during adulthood.
- Astronomy
Alien Light: Taking the spectra of extrasolar planets
Astronomers have for the first time recorded the spectra of light emitted by two extrasolar planets.
