News
- 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.
- Earth
New solutions for unused drugs
Pharmacists and federal scientists have launched a program to discourage consumers from flushing unused prescription drugs down the toilet.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Freeze-thaw cycles: How not to mix soil
The repeated cycles of ground freezing and thawing that occur in many places don't do a surprising poor job of churning the soil.
By Sid Perkins -
Kill-save gene combo might fight malaria
A technique that might someday enlist mosquitoes in the fight against malaria has passed an early test.
By Susan Milius