Uncategorized

  1. Materials Science

    Spinning Fine Threads: Silkworms coerced to make better silk

    The caterpillars that spin commercial silk can make tougher or more elastic threads, depending on how fast they're forced to spin.

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  2. Ecosystems

    Tougher Weeds? Borrowed gene helps wild sunflower

    Feeding concerns about developing superweeds, a test of sunflowers shows for the first time that a biologically engineered gene moving from a crop can give an advantage to wild relatives under naturalistic conditions.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Toxin Trumped: New malaria vaccine protects mice

    An experimental vaccine neutralizes a toxic molecule made by malaria-causing parasites.

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  4. 19103

    Your article on microbial-efflux-pump research immediately caused me to relate the phenomenon to immune system response. Have the researchers considered the possibility of such a response triggering the formation of efflux pumps, either specific to the triggering “foreign” body or to a group of bodies similar to the cow pox-small pox link? Robert E. HubbardWinter […]

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  5. Keeping Bugs from Pumping Drugs

    Researchers hope that attacking the machinery some microbes use to pump antimicrobial agents out of their cells may help deal with the increasing problem of drug resistance.

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  6. Physics

    Scaling energy barriers to save data

    Researchers demonstrate a promising new way to make semiconductor-based memory that doesn't erase when the power goes off.

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  7. Physics

    Spectral atom rings in

    Electron waves can generate a phantom atom when a real atom is placed at the right spot inside an elliptical quantum corral, or loop of atoms, arranged on a surface.

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  8. Humans

    From the August 13, 1932, issue

    ONLY HALF OF LIGHTNING FLASH IS SEEN BY OBSERVERS Not many years ago, a thunderstorm often meant that the supply of electricity would be interrupted. But now, lightning does not cause power line failures nearly as frequently as it used to; it has been tamed by engineers. Laboratory artificial power lines that duplicate actual conditions […]

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  9. Health & Medicine

    One more reason to worry

    A single dose of the AIDS drug nevirapine, given to mothers to help prevent them from infecting their children during birth, may be enough to prod the virus to develop drug resistance.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    HIV may date back to the 1930s

    Genetic analysis of the AIDS virus suggests it first infected humans in the first third of the 20th century.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    AIDS drugs may cause bone loss

    Using X rays to measure bone density in HIV-infected men, researchers find a possible link between bone loss and long-term use of protease inhibitors.

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  12. Math

    Prepping for Calculus

    The “Calculus Page” Web site provides links to a variety of resources for calculus students and teachers, from problem sets with step-by-step solutions to tips on preparing for exams. Linked sites offer online tutorials and courses, sample exams, animated examples, mathematical software, and information on calculus competitions and the history of calculus. Go to: http://www.calculus.org/

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