Humans

Life

Researchers distinguish two different types of blood stem cells

Working in mice, scientists find that red and white blood cells arise from different progenitors.

Health & Medicine

Old drug may be first choice for childhood petit mal epilepsy

Three-way trial shows ethosuximide edging out two newer choices.

Chemistry

Plasticizers kept from leaching out

‘Chemicals of concern’ may be made safer in new materials.

Agriculture

Frogs: Clues to how weed killer may feminize males

Atrazine, a widely used agricultural herbicide, not only can alter hormone levels in the developing frogs, but also perturb their physical development — and lead to an excess number of females, researchers report. Their new findings may help explain observations reported by a number of other research groups that at least in frogs, fairly low concentrations of atrazine can induce a feminization — or demasculinization.

Health & Medicine

Coffee not linked to heart arrhythmia

A large survey of insured people finds no extra hospitalizations in java swillers.

Archaeology

Stone Age engraving traditions appear on ostrich eggshells

Fragments indicate symbolic communication on 60,000-year-old water containers.

Humans

Titanic study: It takes time to do the right thing

Comparing the Titanic and Lusitania disasters suggests that people in a crisis are more likely to maintain social norms if they have longer to react.

Earth

Frogs: Weed killer creates real Mr. Moms

Several months back, a Berkeley undergraduate began witnessing distinctly odd behavior in frogs she was caring for in the lab. At about 18-months old, some frisky guys began regularly mounting tank mates, as if to copulate. Except that their chosen partner was invariably male. He had to be. Because genetically, every animal in the tank was male.

Health & Medicine

Hormone may be heart-healthy insulin substitute

A study in mice finds leptin lowers blood sugar without raising cholesterol.

Climate

IPCC looks to vet, report climate-science better

Major U.S. science organizations aren’t the only ones to realize that the climate-science community has bungled – and badly – its portrayals of research on global change in recent months, if not years, and its responses to criticisms. Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a group established by the United Nations and World Meteorological Organization) said: “we recognize the criticism that has been leveled at us and the need to respond.” So will be convening an “independent review” panel to investigate what the organization’s procedures should be to vet not only the data it uses and how to synthesize conclusions based on those data, but also how it should convey those conclusions (and any necessary caveats) in reports to the public and policymakers.

Humans

Facebook users keep it real in online profiles

College students on Facebook display their real personalities, not reinvented selves, a new study suggests.

Health & Medicine

Germs in tobacco are potential source of respiratory infections blamed on smoking

Tests find hundreds of bacterial species in major cigarette brands.