Uncategorized
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Health & Medicine
Soy compound revs up cancer fighter in healthy tissue
A lab study of healthy breast tissue cells shows increases in the tumor suppressor protein PTEN in the presence of soy isoflavone genistein, a compound believed to fight breast cancer.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
Breast density signals tamoxifen’s effectiveness
Decreasing breast density signals the drug tamoxifen is working in women at risk of developing breast cancer.
By Nathan Seppa -
Life
Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists
DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes.
By Susan Milius -
Math
The happiness virus
Two studies apply social networking ideas to data from health studies of thousands of people, and suggest different interpretations of how contagious happiness or other experiences can be.
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Archaeology
Tools with handles even more ancient
An analysis of stone tools excavated at a Syrian site indicates that, around 70,000 years ago, Neandertals used a tarlike adhesive to affix sharpened items to handles.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
Stronger role for a breast cancer drug
Going beyond its original role as an add-on for chemotherapy, the breast cancer drug lapatinib, when taken with another kind of frontline drug, may find use for patients with the HER2-positive form of the cancer.
By Nathan Seppa -
Life
Study raises worries for zoo-born elephants
Study of captive-born females finds big survival gap between zoo natives and elephants in native ranges.
By Susan Milius -
Health & Medicine
Gene could drive species separation
Newly identified fruit fly gene provides evidence for “cheating genes” that may cause species schisms
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Earth
Reef record suggests impending Sumatra quakes
Evidence of seafloor rise and fall shows southern Sumatra is at start of new earthquake cycle.
By Sid Perkins -
Space
Astronomers zero in on Milky Way’s black hole
Astronomers report a new value for the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center.
By Ron Cowen -
Space
Reading ripples in the cosmic microwave background
Researchers analyzing the wiggles imprinted on the cosmic microwave background, the radiation leftover from the Big Bang, have now demonstrated that those wiggles can be used to find the fingerprints of dark energy.
By Ron Cowen -
Physics
Superglass could be new state of matter
Simulations of helium-4 show that a superglass, in which atoms flow without friction, is possible.