Uncategorized
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When Mice Fly: Bat DNA leads to longer limbs in mouse embryos
Mice with a stretch of bat DNA grow longer limbs, a possible step in the evolutionary path to wings.
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Astronomy
Second Time Around: Some old stars may make new planets
Two old stars appear to have been rejuvenated and may be undergoing a new wave of planet formation hundreds of millions to billions of years after young stars normally do.
By Ron Cowen -
Humans
A Thirst for Meat: Changes in diet, rising population may strain China’s water supply
Rapid industrialization, an increase in population, and a growing dietary preference for meat in China are straining the country's water resources to the point where food imports probably will be needed to meet demand in coming decades.
By Sid Perkins -
Physics
Dusty Fireball: Can lab-made blob explain ball lightning?
Artificial cousins of ball lightning contain microscopic particles, just like a model says they should. With video.
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Health & Medicine
Phoenix Heart: Replacing a heart’s cells could ease transplants
Scientists removed all the cells from a dead rat heart, injected new heart cells, and produced a beating heart, paving the way for eventually growing organs for transplantation in humans.
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Health & Medicine
Getting the Red Out: Drug improves kids’ psoriasis symptoms
The rheumatoid arthritis drug etanercept clears up psoriasis in children and may become the first systemic medication for the ailment in youngsters.
By Nathan Seppa -
19917
Regarding this article; while drug companies wish to market their products, my attention is drawn to the fact that 1 in 8 of the control group of psoriasis patients was cured by placebo effect. Who will investigate the process therein? Is there a market for it? Carson BarnesLoma Mar, Calif. A potent placebo effect, even […]
By Science News -
Earth
Bird’s-eye view of Antarctic ice loss
Satellite images of Antarctica between 1992 and 2006 indicate that the continent was losing ice much faster at the end of that period than it was a decade before.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
HIV variant might help vaccine search
Scientists have discovered an unusual HIV protein in a Kenyan woman that makes the virus vulnerable to antibodies.
By Nathan Seppa -
Earth
Switchgrass may yield biofuel bounty
Making ethanol from switchgrass yielded more than 5 times more energy than needed to grow the crops in a large-scale farming trial.
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19916
Distilleries have been around since the dawn of time, including barleycorn (whiskey), maize (whiskey), potatoes (vodka), sugarcane (rum), and arcane brews distilled from beets, bread crumbs, and bamboo. The ethanol molecule cares not one wit about its particular provenance, so what is so special about a soil-depleting broom like switchgrass, when economically important sources have […]
By Science News -
Health & Medicine
Sleep disruption and glucose processing
Shallow sleep can depress the body's ability to process glucose efficiently.
By Nathan Seppa