News
-
Health & MedicineDebate Renewed: Diabetes drug ups heart risk
A popular diabetes drug significantly increases the risk of heart failure and heart attack in those who take it.
By Brian Vastag -
AnimalsFish Switch: Salmon make baby trout after species, sex swap
Salmon implanted with trout reproductive tissue bred to produce a generation of normal rainbow trout.
By Susan Milius -
Planetary ScienceSurvivor: Extrasolar planet escapes stellar attack
An extrasolar planet survived after its aging parent star ballooned into a red giant that almost engulfed it.
By Ron Cowen -
PhysicsAlliance of Opposites: Electrons and positrons make new molecule
Positronium, consisting of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, has been made into a molecular form.
-
Health & MedicineBlood vessel growth factor also does housekeeping
A growth factor that promotes blood vessel development also maintains normal blood vessel health, perhaps explaining the vascular side effects of some cancer drugs.
By Sarah Webb -
AstronomyBloated planet
A newly discovered exoplanet is the largest and lowest-density such object yet found.
By Ron Cowen -
ChemistryNanoparticles multitask
Magnetite nanoparticles have catalytic properties that may be useful in wastewater treatment and biomedical assays.
By Sarah Webb -
ArchaeologyAncient city grew from outside in
A 6,000-year-old city in what's now northeastern Syria developed when initially independent settlements expanded and merged, unlike other nearby cities that grew from a core outward.
By Bruce Bower -
AnthropologyAdvantage: Starch
An enhanced ability to digest starch may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over their ape relatives.
By Brian Vastag -
Perfect pitch isn’t so perfect in many
Among people with perfect pitch, the most common error seems to be misidentifying G flat as A, the note on which orchestras traditionally tune.
By Nathan Seppa -
AstronomyMajor merger
Four galaxies are ramming into each other in one of the biggest cosmic collisions ever recorded.
By Ron Cowen -
Health & MedicineHow platelets help cancer spread
A tumor cell protein influences blood platelets in a way that helps a cancer spread through the body.
By Sarah Webb