News

  1. Chemistry

    Breakdown: How Three Chemists Took the Prize

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their discovery of how cells mark proteins for destruction with a molecular tag called ubiquitin, otherwise known as the kiss of death.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Mars Rovers: New evidence of past water

    Twin rovers on opposite sides of the Red Planet have found additional evidence that liquid water once flowed there.

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  3. Trash to Treasure: Junk DNA influences eggs, early embryos

    A type of DNA once thought to be little more than genetic clutter may play a role in gene expression in mammalian eggs and newly formed embryos.

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  4. Verbal sighting in brains of the blind

    Brain areas typically responsible for visual processing instead contribute to verbal skills in blind people.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Martian water everywhere

    Combining data taken from two craft orbiting Mars with images and spectra collected by one of the Mars rovers, a scientist has found evidence that a body of water greater in area than all the Great Lakes combined once covered the Red Planet.

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  6. Physics

    To freeze this liquid, add heat

    A wrong-headed mixture of liquid starch, water, and a solvent freezes when heated.

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  7. Earth

    Extra rainfall may stem warming in Midwest

    Increased precipitation in parts of the Midwest may reduce the temperature increases expected to occur in the next few decades as a result of global warming.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Drug-resistant staph causes more pneumonia

    A recently discovered variant of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to some antibiotics became a major cause of severe pneumonia among people who caught the flu last winter.

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  9. New bacteria linked to vaginal infections

    Several newly described bacteria appear to share much of the responsibility for causing a common infection in women.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Kids’ vaccine guards adults too, for now

    Serious infections caused by pneumococcus have decreased in both children and adults since the introduction of a childhood vaccine against seven strains of the bacterium, but other pneumococcus strains are now becoming more prevalent among adults with HIV.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Human antibody halts SARS in hamsters

    Human-derived antibodies can not only prevent infections when given in advance of SARS exposure but also mitigate the symptoms of an infection already in progress.

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  12. Humans

    Scrubbing Down: Free soap, hygiene tips cut kids’ illnesses

    In urban slums, enhancing family hygiene can prevent about half of childhood diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, including pneumonia, even among infants too young to wash themselves.

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