News
- Health & Medicine
When antioxidants go bad
Overproduction of antioxidants, usually thought to be beneficial, is the cause of an inherited heart disease.
- Earth
O River Deltas, Where Art Thou? Coastal sinking stalls sediment accumulation
The western coast of Siberia lacks river deltas because of the way the terrain has subsided since the end of the last ice age.
By Sid Perkins - Physics
Crueltyfree: Counting photons without killing them
A delicate quantum measurement counts photons without destroying them.
- Astronomy
Separation Anxiety: Cosmic collision may shed light on dark matter
The debris from an ancient collision of galaxy clusters seems to show cosmic dark matter behaving in a puzzling way.
By Ron Cowen -
Groomed for Trouble: Mice yield obsessive-compulsive insights
Mice lacking a gene that makes a certain brain protein display behaviors much like those of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a poorly understood psychiatric ailment.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
High Volume, Low Fidelity: Birds are less faithful as sounds blare
In noisy surroundings, normally faithful female zebra finches flirt with unfamiliar males.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Infectious Obesity: Adenovirus fattens stem cells
Some cases of obesity may result from infection by a virus that can transform adult stem cells into fat-storing cells.
By Brian Vastag - Health & Medicine
If You Can Stomach It: Obesity surgery extends life span
Drastic weight loss achieved through gastric bypass and other stomach surgeries improves long-term survival for very obese people.
By Nathan Seppa - Physics
Frizzed molecular carpets
Measurements of the speed with which heat travels along single hydrocarbon molecules could aid in the design of molecular electronics.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine targets ovarian-cancer cells
A vaccine for ovarian cancer enables some women who've undergone chemotherapy to stay in remission.
By Nathan Seppa - Archaeology
Map yields new view of ancient city
A new map shows that Angkor, the world's largest preindustrial city, covered more than 1,000 square kilometers of what is now Cambodia and possessed an elaborate canal system.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Lithium might help bone healing
In mice, treatment with lithium assists in the production of a bone-repair protein and improves the healing of fractures.
By Nathan Seppa