All Stories
- Earth
Model offers grounds for midwestern quakes
A new computer model may help explain how earthquakes can happen at fault zones located far from the edges of a tectonic plate.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Gene Tied to Heightened Diabetes Risk
People with three particular variations within the gene that encodes the protein calpain-10 face triple the risk of getting type II diabetes.
By Nathan Seppa - Math
Trimathlon Palindromes
“A man, a plan, a canal–Panama.” This statement is a famous example of a palindrome–a phrase that reads the same forward or backward. Inventive wordsmiths and puzzlists have come up with all sorts of words, sentences, and even paragraphs that have this property. The term palindrome can also be applied to whole numbers, such as […]
- Health & Medicine
Another Green That Might Prevent Breast Cancer
Many studies have indicated that diets high in produce–including broccoli and other veggies–may lower a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. Now, California researchers report data suggesting that drinking green tea does the same thing. Bad news for women who–like me–prefer black tea: The study failed to identify a similar advantage from such brews, much […]
By Janet Raloff - Earth
River Stats Trickle In: Major floods may be waning in Europe
A new analysis of historical flood records from central Europe suggests that widespread inundations in the region have been on the wane for the past century or so.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Paper Chased: Cancer-vaccine study is retracted
Researchers in Germany have retracted a paper that reported promising results for a vaccine that elicited immune responses against cancer cells.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Sweet Relief: Comfort food calms, with weighty effect
Chronic stress might drive people to consume comfort foods that can soothe the brain.
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered to be an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that attacks the myelin sheath around neurons. If there were a relationship between myelin and psychiatric illnesses, as suggested in your article, then many people with MS would suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar illnesses. The study is much too small […]
By Science News -
DNA Tie for Two Disorders: Genetic defects link psychiatric ailments
Alterations of genes that produce a protective, fatty coating for brain cells may influence the development of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Damage Patrol: Enzyme may reveal cancer susceptibility
People with lung cancer show less DNA-repair activity by a certain enzyme than people without the disease do.
By Nathan Seppa - Physics
Fusion Boost: Promising path to heavy nuclei
By using radioactive nuclei as projectiles in accelerator-based nuclear collisions, scientists may be able to produce more readily than expected many exotic heavy nuclei that are impossible to make today but are crucial for future advances in nuclear physics.
By Peter Weiss -
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There is a striking similarity in the wave patterns of the ash plume on the cover of the Sept. 13 issue (above) and those in the gas of the Perseus Cluster pictured in this article. Could it be that volcanoes produce sound waves we can’t hear but can see in the plume? Paul HeinsGainesville, Fla. […]
By Science News