Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Tumor Suicide: Gene therapy makes cancer cells self-destruct
Microscopic bubbles of fat that deliver a suicide gene to tumor cells show success in treating pancreatic cancer in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B drug creates HIV resistance
A hepatitis B drug spurs resistance to HIV drugs in people infected with both diseases.
- Health & Medicine
Mouse method turns skin cells to stem cells
Reprogrammed mouse skin cells that act as stem cells may offer an alternative for research involving embryos.
- Health & Medicine
Brain Attack
Although they have explored many promising ideas, scientists are finding it difficult to develop new treatments to limit the damage caused by ischemic strokes.
- Humans
Letters from the July 14, 2007, issue of Science News
At least a few years to prepare “Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?” (SN: 4/21/07, p. 244) posits that every 64 million years a mass die-off occurs due to increased cosmic rays. When will the cosmic rays again be at their maximum? Robert RichardsMetairie, La. The article failed to mention when the next […]
- Humans
From the July 3, 1937, issue
A spectacular freak photograph of a solar eclipse, meteorites as the remnants of lost planets, and inducing dropsy in animals.
- Health & Medicine
Concerns over Genistein, Part II—Beyond the heart
Mice eating a diet laced with an estrogen-like constituent of soy display a puzzling variety of changes, some apparently good, some potentially bad.
- Health & Medicine
Spermicide Flip Side: Compound may promote papillomavirus infection
The widely used spermicide nonoxynol-9 may boost the infectiousness of human papillomavirus, mouse tests show.
- Health & Medicine
Bad News for Cats: Cat allergen hits all allergic people
People allergic to dust mites, mold, grass, and other common irritants—but not to cats—still have greater breathing difficulties when they live around the animals.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotics in infancy tied to asthma
Infants who get several courses of antibiotics before their first birthdays are more likely to develop asthma later.
- Health & Medicine
Linking stress and senility
A gene that's active in the brain may help explain why emotional stress seems to increase a person's likelihood of getting Alzheimer's disease.
- Humans
Letters from the July 7, 2007, issue of Science News
Hex sine? The NASA researchers baffled by the hexagonal shape in Saturn’s soupy atmosphere at its northern pole (“A hexagon on the ringed planet,” SN: 4/28/07, p. 269) should read “As waters part, polygons appear” (SN: 6/3/06, p. 348). It is worth investigating whether there is a similar phenomenon—I still suspect some sort of standing […]
