News
- Planetary Science
Doggone! Pluto gets a planetary demotion
The solar system has only eight planets, and Pluto isn't one of them, according to the first-ever definition of a planet, approved last week by the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union.
- Health & Medicine
Head to Head: Brain implants are better for Parkinson’s patients
Parkinson's patients who get electrodes surgically implanted in their brains regain some muscle control and have improved quality of life.
- Paleontology
Frozen rainforest
Fossils trapped in amber provide evidence that the Amazonian rainforest dates back 10 to 15 million years.
- Earth
When a Shot Is Not: PCBs may impair vaccine-induced immunity
Exposure to certain pollutants early in life may do lasting harm to the immune system by blocking its response to vaccinations.
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Moss Express: Insects and mites tote mosses’ sperm
A lab test has shown that mosses have their own version animal-courier system for sperm that's similar to pollination.
- Tech
Wheel of Life: Bacteria provide horsepower for tiny motor
Crawling bacteria can power a micromotor.
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Engineering a Cure: Genetically modified cells fight cancer
By inserting a gene into normal immune cells isolated from melanoma patients, scientists have turned the cells into cancer fighters.
- Animals
Flea treatment shows downside of social life
The flealike parasites that build up in a shared burrow take an unexpectedly large toll on the ground squirrel's reproductive success.
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Is a Galápagos finch caught in a split?
An inland population of one of the famed Galápagos finches may become a new textbook example of the way in which two species emerge from one while still living together.
- Animals
How do female lemurs get so tough?
Female ring-tailed lemurs may get masculinized by well-timed little rises of prenatal hormones.
- Animals
Female moths join pheromone choruses
Female rattlebox moths can detect each other's male-luring pheromones and tend to gather in what may be a scent version of male frogs' chorusing around the pond.
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Drug could be depression buster
Preliminary evidence indicates that a single dose of a drug called ketamine rapidly quells symptoms of major depression for up to 1 week in patients who don't benefit from standard antidepressant medications.
