All Stories
- Health & Medicine
Old polio vaccine free of HIV, SIV
Three laboratories analyzing remaining samples of polio vaccine used in the late 1950s find that none contains any human or simian immunodeficiency virus, or chimpanzee DNA—making polio vaccine unlikely to be the cause of the initial HIV outbreak in central Africa.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Stem-cell transplant works on lupus
Severe lupus can be reversed with a transplant of the patient's own bone marrow stem cells, after they're allowed to mature outside the body, and medication that neutralizes self-attacking immune cells.
By Nathan Seppa - Astronomy
Ulysses makes a return trip
Just as the sun has reached the stormy peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the European Space Agency's Ulysses spacecraft has begun its second and final pass over the sun's poles.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Magnetic-mapping mission resurrected
The European Space Agency successfully launched Cluster II, a group of four spacecraft that will fly in tandem to generate a three-dimensional map of Earth's magnetosphere.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Spirograph in the sky
Some 2,000 light-years from Earth, an elderly star has ejected its outer layers to form a puffy, gaseous cocoon that resembles a "spirograph" pattern.
By Ron Cowen -
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This article on using magnetic fields to map and possibly treat brain disorders contrasted sharply with the article a few pages earlier about magnetic fields inducing cells to develop tumors (“Cells proliferate in magnetic fields,” SN: 9/23/00, p. 196: Available to subscribers at Cells profilerate in magnetic fields). I would strongly suggest that both the […]
By Science News -
Snap, Crackle, and Feel Good?
Magnetic fields that map the brain may also treat its disorders.
By John Travis - Math
Unlocking Puzzling Polygons
Proof settles a wickedly prickly question about unfurling crinkly polygons.
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Hormone dulls a tongue’s taste for sweets
The hormone leptin may suppress the tongue's ability to taste sugary substances.
By John Travis - Animals
Snapping shrimp whip up a riot of bubbles
High-speed video and fancy math demonstrate that snapping shrimp make so much noise by popping bubbles.
By Susan Milius -
The brain spreads its sights in the deaf
Altered brain activity in deaf people may strengthen their peripheral vision.
By Bruce Bower -
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Medicine needs a new paradigm. The findings described in this article suggest something better than potentially important agents and a new class of drugs to reduce cancer risk, as observed by Barnett Zumoff. If you want to reduce your cancer risk, simply do what the Polish women mentioned in the story do: Eat more cabbage, […]
By Science News