A new test that detects very low levels of protein clumps associated with Alzheimer's may provide an early warning for the disease. (p. 83)

Barely more massive than a planet itself, a tiny failed star 500 light-years from Earth is nonetheless cloaked in a disk of gas and dust from which planets may coalesce. (p. 83)

A network of organizations in an African region prone to Ebola epidemics has identified the virus in wild-animal remains prior to two recent human outbreaks, suggesting that animal carcasses may provide timely clues that could prevent the disease from spreading to people. (p. 84)

Bacteria that divide symmetrically, once thought to be functionally immortal, may age and die just like other organisms do. (p. 84)

U.S. football players who get scrapes and cuts from playing on artificial turf sometimes develop bacterial infections that are resistant to some antibiotics. (p. 85)

Materials scientists have turned wood into stone in a matter of days, mimicking a natural process that takes millions of years. (p. 85)

The need to avoid overdosing on oxygen may drive certain insects to shut down their breathing holes periodically. (p. 86)

Because designers flouted a well-known rule for making cryptographic systems impenetrable, automakers and other businesses have embraced a wireless security technology that's vulnerable to attack. (p. 86)

New studies suggest that farmers spread from the Middle East throughout Europe beginning around 10,000 years ago in a multitude of small migrations that rapidly changed the continent's social and cultural landscape. (p. 88)

Pharmaceutical companies' overaggressive marketing of risky drugs, compounded by conflicts of interest among physicians and government agencies, is hurting public safety, some researchers assert. (p. 90)

One alcoholic drink per day can stave off mental decline in elderly women. (p. 93)

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a strikingly detailed image of the starlit arms, glowing gas, and dark dust clouds of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 1300, which lies 69 million light-years from Earth. (p. 93)

Failure in visual short-term memory of objects, called iconic memory, could be a warning sign of Alzheimer's disease. (p. 93)

A new mathematical model suggests that the presence of nearby hospitals may give a hospital an economic incentive to relax its infection-control efforts. (p. 93)

In amphibians, ozone damages immune function in the lungs, suggesting a possible new contributor to worldwide amphibian declines. (p. 94)

Analyses of a soil sample from central Missouri suggest the date of onset of North America's most recent spate of ice ages. (p. 94)

A new device could look for life on Mars by analyzing the geometric traits of amino acids in soil. (p. 94)

A class of antiseizure drugs significantly extends the life span of roundworms, a finding that could lead to better understanding of factors that influence aging in people. (p. 94)

(p. 95)