News
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Danger Mouse: Deleting a gene transforms timid rodents into daredevils
By removing one gene from a mouse's standard repertoire, scientists have turned a timid animal into an intrepid one.
- Earth
Nonstick Taints: Fluorochemicals are in us all
A new federal study strongly suggests that all U.S. residents harbor measurable traces of fluorochemicals, compounds found in a host of consumer products.
- Animals
Unway Sign: Ant pheromone stops traffic
Researchers have found a new kind of traffic sign on ant trails, a chemical "Do not enter" that keeps foragers from wasting their time on paths that don't lead to food.
- Earth
Roots of Climate: Plants’ water transport cools Amazon basin
Field tests in the Amazon have for the first time measured daily and seasonal movements of soil moisture through the deep roots of trees.
- Materials Science
Atom Hauler: Molecular rig snags multi-atom loads
Specialists in atomic-scale construction can now use a new molecule to gather small groups of atoms and drop them, as clusters, at specific locations.
- Health & Medicine
Natural Ingredients: Method grows vessels from one’s own cells
Starting with bits of skin, scientists have produced new blood vessels in a laboratory and successfully implanted them into two patients.
- Health & Medicine
Pill eases craving
An experimental drug called varenicline helps cigarette smokers kick the habit better than bupropion does, the most effective medicine currently on the market.
- Health & Medicine
Endurance cycling tied to lasting heart damage
Former professional bicyclers have signs of heart problems nearly 4 decades after competing in grueling endurance events.
- Health & Medicine
New drug fights heart failure
The experimental drug levosimendin, in combination with standard drugs, eases heart failure symptoms better than standard drugs alone do.
- Health & Medicine
Marrow cells boost ailing hearts
Extracting cells from a heart attack patient's bone marrow and then inserting them into the person's heart via a catheter can improve pumping capacity.
- Earth
Antibiotics afield
Antibiotics shed by livestock in manure can end up in crops or bound to soil, where they can foster disease-resistant germs.
- Planetary Science
Found and lost
Astronomers who previously announced that they had identified the likely remains of the Mars Polar Lander in images taken by an orbiting spacecraft now say that they were fooled by electronic noise in those images.
