6,170 results
- Life
Mild winters may shift spread of mosquito-borne illness
By pushing insects to start biting mammals earlier in the year, warmer cold months could increase the transmission of a brain virus affecting people and horses.
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Letters
Galactic collisions explained Perhaps you can explain why Andromeda and the Milky Way are going to collide “Milky Way will be hit head-on,” (SN: 7/14/12, p. 10). Galaxies, as is always written, are rushing away from each other at ever-increasing speeds. How do things collide when there is never anything to collide with? Either galaxies are […]
- Humans
Germs’ persistence: Nothing to sneeze at
Years ago, I read (probably in Science News) that viruses can’t survive long outside their hosts. That implied any surface onto which a sneezed-out germ found itself — such as the arm of a chair, kitchen counter or car-door handle — would effectively decontaminate itself within hours to a day. A pair of new flu papers now indicates that although many germs will die within hours, none of us should count on it. Given the right environment, viruses can remain infectious — potentially for many weeks, one of the studies finds.
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A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
The engaging essays in this slim volume are chock-full of information about viruses, from the common cold to smallpox. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011, 109 p., $20.
- Tech
DNA used as rewritable data storage in cells
Genetically encoded memory could track cell division inside the body.
- Life
Stopping a real-life ‘Contagion’
An antibody treatment fends off the lethal Hendra virus in monkeys and may also work against the equally dangerous Nipah virus.
- Health & Medicine
Gene therapy helps counter hemophilia B
Treatment enables cells to produce a key blood-clotting compound, allowing some patients to quit medication.
- Health & Medicine
Bird flu leaves tracks in brain
H5N1 infection might make survivors vulnerable to Parkinson’s or other neurological disorders, a study in mice indicates.
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2012 AAAS Meeting
Highlights from the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Vancouver, February 16-20.
- Genetics
Crosses make lab mice even more useful
Scientists have bred new strains of lab animals with the goal of making it easier to tease out genetic components of complex diseases.
- Life
Common virus may ride up nose to brain
Almost everyone is infected, but in some people a widespread herpes bug appears to reach the central nervous system by an olfactory route.
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Letters
Redesigning flu mortality In “Designer flu” (SN: 6/2/12, p. 20), researcher Michael Osterholmis quoted as saying that even if the actual kill rate of H5N1 is 20 times lower than the current estimate of 59 percent, H5N1 would still have a mortality rate that “far exceeds” that of the 1918 flu. Wikipedia gives a 1918 […]
