Chemistry
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Chili pepper holds hot prospects for painfree dieting
A cousin of the chemical that packs the heat in chilis not only can rev up the body’s metabolism but actually encourage it to preferentially burn fat, according to a new trial in obese men and women. And the kicker: The molecule is itself so fat that it can’t fit into the receptors that would ordinarily register pain.
- Health & Medicine
Body makes its own morphine
A study in mice suggests other mammals, including humans, can produce the painkiller in their bodies.
- Agriculture
Rural ozone can be fed by feed (as in silage)
Livestock operations take a lot of flak for polluting. Researchers are now linking ozone to livestock, at least in one of the nation's most agriculturally intense centers. And here the pollution source is not what comes out the back end of an animal but what’s destined to go in the front.
- Chemistry
From movies you’ll love to drugs you’ll take
A new method picks out promising drug compounds by computer, in much the same way Netflix recommends DVDs to its customers.
- Materials Science
Physicists untangle the geometry of rope
Equations explain why winding fibers together does the job, no matter what they’re made of.
- Chemistry
American Chemical Society meeting highlights
Read Science News reporters' complete coverage of the recent chemistry conference.
- Chemistry
Superheavy element 117 makes debut
An international team of researchers fill a gap in the periodic table, and lay another stepping stone along the path to the “island of stability.”
- Chemistry
Study reports hints of phthalate threat to boys’ IQs
You may have a hard time spelling phthalates, but there’s no avoiding them. They’re in the air you breathe, water you drink and foods you eat. And this ubiquity may carry a price, particularly for young boys, emerging data suggest. Including a drop in their IQ.
- Life
Researchers figure out how flies taste water
A study identifies the cell membrane protein that flies use to detect water’s flavor.
- Chemistry
Skin as a source of drug pollution
Traces of over-the-counter and prescription meds taint the environment. The presumption Ì and it's a good one Ì has been that most of these residues come from the urine and solid wastes excreted by treated patients. But in some instances, a leading source of a drug may be skin Ì either because the medicine was applied there or because people sweat it out.
- Health & Medicine
Putting African sleeping sickness to bed
Experiments in mice find a protein that could lead to a safer and more effective treatment for parasitic disease.
- Chemistry
Mothballs deserve respect
I don’t use mothballs — except sometimes to sprinkle down the burrows of animals excavating tunnels beneath the deck floor of my pergola. It’s the most effective stop-work order for wildlife that I’ve found. But I won’t use these stinky crystals inside my home because they scare me. And those fears appear justified, according to Linda Hall of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
