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- Earth
Cancer-fighting e-mails
A new federal service, offered jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Weather Service, will notify individuals, via e-mail, when the sun's cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation is forecast to be unusually high.
- Health & Medicine
Rooting out hidden HIV
A drug called valproic acid, used in combination with other medications, can ferret out HIV that is lying dormant in cells.
- Planetary Science
Satellites could detect quakes on Venus
Strong seismic activity on Venus could cause brief but detectable temperature increases high in that planet's atmosphere.
- Tech
Body-fluid battery
A battery that's activated by body fluids such as saliva or urine may one day power devices ranging from disposable home health-care testing kits to emergency radio transmitters that turn on with a lick.
- Health & Medicine
Protein fingered in rare psychosis
A protein is pivotal in bringing on the psychotic attacks that beset people with porphyria, a rare inherited disease.
- Animals
Bumblebee 007: Bees can spy on others’ flower choices
Bumblebees that watched their neighbors feast on unusual flowers often later checked out the same kinds of blossoms themselves, a behavior that amounts to social learning.
- Health & Medicine
A New Role for Statin Drugs? Cholesterol fighters may reduce deaths soon after heart attacks
Statin drugs given within 24 hours of a heart attack improve a patient's chance of surviving.
- Tech
Wings warp for birdlike agility
An easily maneuverable, bird-size airplane whose wings can change shape in flight may be able to carry out a variety of assignments in tight spots.
- Chemistry
Class Acts from New Pesticides: Chemicals have little effect on mammals
Two new classes of selective pesticides immobilize and eventually kill many crop-damaging insects by interfering with a cell receptor unique to those pests.
- Materials Science
Fog Be Gone: Nanocoating clarifies the view
Scientists have created a nanocoating that prevents fogging and reflection on glass surfaces.
- Astronomy
Recipe for a Heavyweight: Making a massive star
New findings strongly support the notion that at least some massive stars form much as their lighter-weight siblings do, by packing on material from a surrounding disk of gas and dust.
