News
- Health & Medicine
Stroke site is often not right
Thousands of strokes in the right half of the brain may go unrecognized because their symptoms are less distinctive than those of left-side strokes.
By Ben Harder - Animals
Getting the Gull: Baiting trick spreads among killer whales
A young male orca that spits up fish and then ambushes gulls attracted to the mess seems to have started a wave of cultural transmission.
By Susan Milius -
Bitty Beasts of Burden: Algae can carry cargo
Scientists have devised a way to make single-cell algae bear loads over distances of several centimeters, a tactic that could prove useful in tiny machines.
- Health & Medicine
X Ray Excels: Technique brings a new image to medicine
Recent advances in a technique called phase-contrast x-ray imaging could make it easier for physicians to spot tumors, clogged arteries, and other soft-tissue problems.
- Health & Medicine
Comb over Chemicals: Tool may rid heads of pesticideproof lice
Used systematically, special combs may be more effective than insecticidal shampoos at ridding a child's scalp of head lice.
By Ben Harder - Anthropology
Reservoirs of Evolution: Rainy periods linked to human origins in Africa
Three phases of heavy rainfall in eastern Africa between 2.7 million and 900,000 years ago created deep lakes and might have played a critical role in the evolution of human ancestors.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Outwitting TB: Enhanced vaccine protects mice in lab tests
An enhanced vaccine appears to offer better protection against tuberculosis than the current version does, a study in mice suggests.
By Nathan Seppa - Materials Science
Fine Fabric: New, fast way to make sheets of nanotubes
Scientists have come up with a way to efficiently produce thin, transparent sheets of carbon nanotubes that are several meters long.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Inhaling salt raises blood pressure
People who work in environments where large amounts of salt particles hang in the air may literally breathe their way to high blood pressure.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Tracking busy genes to get at cancer
By identifying which genes are overactive in certain breast tumors, researchers have discovered a genetic signature that could help doctors predict if and when a woman's cancer might spread to her lungs.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Roughing up counterfeiters
A new anticounterfeiting scheme generates unique, reproducible identity codes that could be used to authenticate passports, credit cards, and other items on the basis of inherent, microscopic irregularities in the items' surfaces.
By Peter Weiss -