Life
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria help themselves in damaged lungs
An antibiotic produced by a bacterium acts as a molecular snorkel to help with breathing. The bacterium infects and kills many people with cystic fibrosis, and plugging the snorkel could lead to treatments.
- Ecosystems
Thwarting Tree Poachers
A new federal rule makes it harder to destroy protected forests.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Aging gets with the program
A study on yeast organisms reveals checkpoints in the aging process: the buildup of certain lipids and fatty acids, and the health of the cell's powerhouses. Drugs could target these checkpoints.
- Life
Extreme preservation gives fly’s eye view
The cell-by-cell detail of a 45 million-year–old retina is preserved in amber
By Susan Milius - Life
Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists
DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes.
By Susan Milius - Life
Study raises worries for zoo-born elephants
Study of captive-born females finds big survival gap between zoo natives and elephants in native ranges.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Gene could drive species separation
Newly identified fruit fly gene provides evidence for “cheating genes” that may cause species schisms
- Animals
Dolphins wield tools of the sea
A long-term study of dolphins living off Australia’s coast finds that a small number of them, mostly females, frequently use sea sponges to forage for fish on the ocean floor.
By Bruce Bower - Chemistry
Engineered bacteria create high-energy biofuel
Scientists alter E. coli microbes to make a high-energy alcohol not produced naturally
- Health & Medicine
Malaria vaccine closer to reality
The success of two trials sets the stage for a final, large-scale trial that could mean approval of what would be the first vaccine against Malaria.
By Nathan Seppa - Animals
Dogs will go on strike over unfair treats
Equal sausage demanded for equal paw shakes.
By Susan Milius - Space
Meteorites could have thickened primordial soup
New experiments show that extraterrestrial impacts that occurred early in our planet's history could have created the raw materials for life.
By Sid Perkins