News
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Hypnosis subdues the visual brain
Hypnotic suggestions to perceive written words as gibberish depress activity in brain areas responsible for vision, possibly reflecting a hypnosis-induced decline in attention paid to visual objects.
- Animals
Is eyeless sea creature fishing with a red light?
Researchers off the coast of California have captured three deep-water siphonophores, relatives of jellyfish, and observed in the lab that the creatures twitch little red lights that could be lures for fish.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccines against Marburg and Ebola viruses advance
Two new vaccines protect against the lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses, tests in monkeys show.
- Health & Medicine
Cells in heart can regenerate dead tissue
Stem cells in heart tissue that has survived a heart attack can be prodded to regenerate dead portions of the injured organ.
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Bacterial tresses conduct electricity
New research suggests that several species of Geobacter bacteria use hairlike structures known as pili to move electrons.
- Earth
Growth Slumps: Melting permafrost shapes Alaskan lakes
A new model suggests that some fast-growing, egg-shaped lakes in Alaska expand when their permafrost banks melt and slump in tiny landslides.
- Chemistry
Striking Oil: High-pressure processing minimizes trans fats
Improvements in the techniques used to hydrogenate vegetable oils could soon fill store shelves with food products containing smaller percentages of unhealthful trans fats.
- Health & Medicine
Heartening Responses: Depression drugs may aid survival after heart attack
Depressed patients recovering from heart attacks receive big heart-health benefits by taking prescribed doses of the antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
- Plants
Honey, We Shrank the Snow Lotus: Picking big plants reduces species’ height
Years of harvesting the larger plants of a Himalayan wildflower used in traditional medicines may be driving the evolution of a stubbier plant form.
- Astronomy
Core Finding: Latest, oddest planet hints at how orbs form
A newly discovered planet beyond the solar system has the most massive core of any planet known.
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Same Difference: Twins’ gene regulation isn’t identical
As identical twins go through life, environmental influences differently affect which genes are turned on and which are switched off.
- Health & Medicine
Epilepsy surgery stands test of time
Brain surgery for people with severe epilepsy keeps many of these patients free of seizures for decades.
