News in Brief
- Health & Medicine
Old product might help smokers quit
A drug used in Eastern Europe for decades by people trying to quit smoking outperformed a nicotine patch in a six-month test.
- Life
Fast test reveals drug-resistant bacteria
A new test uses time-lapse photography to see within a few hours whether individual bacterial cells are vulnerable to antibiotics.
- Planetary Science
Rover finds methane in Mars air, organics in rocks
NASA’s Curiosity rover has found organic molecules on Mars, but scientists can’t say whether they are a sign of life on the Red Planet.
- Genetics
Domestication did horses no genetic favors
Horses bear the cost of domestication in the form of harmful genetic variants, a study of equine DNA finds.
- Life
Images reveal secrets of zinc sparks
These sparks are created when billions of zinc atoms shoot from thousands of small pouches nestled just beneath the surface of a mouse egg cell.
- Life
Imprisoning parasites can deter malaria’s spread
Disabling a protein traps malaria-causing parasites within red blood cells and prevents the organisms from reproducing.
- Planetary Science
Martian crater was once filled with liquid water
Sandstone deposits on Mars indicate that Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover’s stomping ground, was once a lake fed by rivers.
- Life
Softer surroundings stifle some chemotherapy drugs
Some anticancer drugs such as Gleevec are less effective when attacking cancer cells grown in soft surroundings.
- Astronomy
Radio burst from beyond Milky Way detected in real time
First real-time detection of radio burst from outside galaxy triggers worldwide hunt for cause of mysterious signals.
- Health & Medicine
Fatty coat on cancer drugs protects the heart
Cancer drugs encased in a layer of fat reduce but don’t eliminate heart damage.
- Climate
Greenhouse gases may spell wet future for Africa
Greenhouse gases played a role in boosting rainfall in Africa 14,000 to 21,000 years ago, a finding that may help predict future abundance of water on the continent.
- Health & Medicine
Old drug reduces herpes symptoms, spread in animal tests
The antidepressant tranylcypromine might also work as antiviral against herpes, animal studies suggest.
