Life
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Health & Medicine
New material could support stem cell development
A ’smart’ gel could help coax stem cells to develop into heart cells.
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Life
Dinosaurs broiled, not grilled
Debris from K-T impact could have been heat source and heat shield.
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Paleontology
New fossil helps solidify dino origins
The dog-sized creature bolsters the notion that early dinosaurs first appeared in what is now South America.
By Sid Perkins -
Life
Fruit flies can be alcoholics too
Drinking behavior of Drosophila shows similarities to human addiction.
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Life
When feminine beauty thrives on competition
Gorgeous plumage for both starling sexes comes from rivalry in co-op nests
By Susan Milius -
Ecosystems
Greening Christmas
I love the smell of balsam and firs and decorating holiday cookies – preferably with the sound of popular holiday standards in the background. I even enjoy shopping for and wrapping carefully chosen presents in seasonal papers festooned with huge bows. So when my hosts, this week, asked what I wanted to see during my visit, the answer was simple. Take me to one of Germany’s famed Christmas markets. And literally within a couple hours of my plane’s landing, they were already ushering me into the first of what would be a handful of such seasonal fairs. But as I also quickly learned, this first was an unusual one: a "green" bazaar.
By Janet Raloff -
Humans
Another livestock drug endangers vultures
After one veterinary NSAID almost wiped out vultures in South Asia, one of the possible replacements turns out to be toxic too.
By Susan Milius -
Life
Model for powerful flu fighters from existing drugs
Computer screening mines inventory of existing drugs to find possible new drugs that the H1N1 and H5N1 flu viruses just wouldn’t be able to resist.
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Life
Bacteria seen swimming the electron shuffle
Researchers have captured the bacterium Shewanella’s behavior on film, and the microbes didn’t behave as expected
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Life
Bird feeding, migration could be splitting a species
German birds that spend the off-season at U.K. birdfeeders now look slightly different from neighbors that migrate to Spain
By Susan Milius