Uncategorized
- Earth
Is Nessie merely a bad case of the shakes?
An Italian scientist makes the controversial suggestion that the original source of the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, as well as blame for many of the modern encounters with the supposed beast, may be seismic activity beneath the lake.
- Health & Medicine
Have a heart: Turn on just a single gene
One gene appears to act as the master switch in embryonic heart formation.
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18955
I am writing to correct a significant inaccuracy in your recent article “Landfills make mercury more toxic.” As a member of the National Research Council’s committee that produced the report you cite, I feel obligated to correct your statement, attributed to that report: “Some 60,000 U.S. children are born with developmental impairments triggered by fetal […]
- Earth
Landfills Make Mercury More Toxic
Landfill disposal of mercury-containing products can chemically transform the pollutant not only to make it more potent but also to foster its release into air.
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Textbooks brace for nuclear challenge
New data threaten to shake up 30 years of scientific dogma regarding how a cell carries out one of its most basic tasks: the translation of the genetic code into proteins.
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Killer yeast win epic battle of toxins
Researchers have discovered the molecular mechanism that keeps a yeast cell programed by a virus to spew a toxin that kills neighboring yeast cells from killing itself.
- Earth
A foamy threat to ozone
Shredding the foam insulation in discarded refrigerators can release significant quantities of chlorofluorocarbons, which pose a threat to Earth's protective ozone layer.
- Earth
Blood points to pollution’s heart risks
As airborne concentrations of fine dust particles climb, so do three blood factors that increase an individual's heart attack risk.
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18935
The statements made concerning the effect of vitamin E on the immune system in cattle don’t concur with the bulk of the data available. Many studies have indicated either marginal or no response. Only when the animal has been held on a deficient ration is the response dramatic. The idea that vitamin E could be […]
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin E benefits cattle, too
Vitamin E aids immune system function and prevents growth declines in cattle, offering an alternative to potentially dangerous use of low-dose antibiotics.
- Health & Medicine
Insight into preemies’ blindness
Lack of a growth factor called IGF-1 has been implicated as a trigger for a disease that can cause vision problems, including blindness, in premature babies.
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A Mite Bizarre
Just in case anybody thought real life paled before the twisted creatures of sci-fi movies, check the Mite Photo Gallery by biologist David Walter of the University of Queensland in Australia. Portraits of more than 40 species offer plenty of weird shapes. The peacock mite, for example, bristles with little leaf-shaped flaps, and a “pan-tropical […]
