Uncategorized
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19035
I find the ideas promulgated in this article deeply disturbing. The idea of pulling out a couple of chemicals and standardizing them is a turning away from the holism that herbal remedies represent. This is the very essence of the complaint against conventional pharmaceuticals and why people are turning to herbals. That there is a […]
- Health & Medicine
Herbal Lottery
Many herbal-product makers aren't maintaining adequate quality control, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to propose rules that mandate good manufacturing practices.
- Humans
Fellowships awarded to Science News writers
Two Science News writers recently received prestigious fellowships.
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Eggs and more grown from mouse stem cells
Stem cells from mouse embryos can be converted into eggs, skin, or heart muscle.
- Earth
Vermiculite turns toxic
Federal agencies issued a warning that much of the vermiculite ceiling insulation installed a decade or more ago may be tainted with cancer-causing asbestos.
- Earth
To contain gene-altered crops, nip them in the seed
Researchers have demonstrated that, in principle, they can add genes that block genetically modified crops from breeding with conventional varieties and thus from spreading their artificial traits.
- Math
Uncovering a prime failure
Mathematicians have returned to the drawing board after what looked like a dramatic step forward in understanding prime numbers.
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19243
The discovery that humans share 99.4 percent of their genetic sequences with chimps does not make chimps like us in any meaningful sense or lower “humanity’s pedestal” in the slightest degree. In some 5 million years on Earth the sum total of chimps’ cultural achievements has been exactly 0. In only 200,000 years, modern humans […]
- Anthropology
Humanity’s pedestal lowered again?
A new genetic study reaches the controversial conclusion that chimpanzees belong to the genus Homo, just as people do.
- Health & Medicine
Gene therapy thwarts hepatitis C in mice
Gene therapy that induces infected liver cells to self-destruct slows hepatitis C dramatically in mice.
- Physics
Taking a shine to number 100
Scientists for the first time literally shed light on the properties of radioactive fermium.
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19323
For those of us who know how to draw and understand the varieties of linear perspective, David Hockney’s proposal that the old masters used optical aids rings true. One of his examples will suffice: The uncanny accuracy of difficult-to-depict patterns in folding cloth in works of the early 1400s is an indication that optical aids […]
