News
- Tech
Solar Surgery: Sunlight acts like laser
By channeling sunlight down a fiber optic cable, scientists have produced laserlike beams that can burn tumors off major organs.
- Physics
Prize honors physicist with conscience
Physicist-author Freeman J. Dyson received the Templeton prize for originality in advancing religious understanding.
- Physics
Four ions mingle in quantum chorus
A new way to produce mysterious quantum correlations among particles ups the record to four particles linked, or entangled, and opens the door to correlating many more particles on cue, a prerequisite for making quantum computers.
- Chemistry
Sweet tooth is in the genes
Taste researchers have narrowed the search for the sweet tooth gene, at least in mice, to a 100-gene region.
- Chemistry
Birth control for male cockroaches
Scientists have discovered a gene in German cockroaches that may lead to a new type of insect control—contraception for male cockroaches.
- Chemistry
Coming up roses in scent research
Aroma chemists have discovered a carotenoid-processing enzyme that makes the chemicals that give rose oil its smell.
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Milestones for Malaria: Parasite, mosquito genes decoded
Unraveling the DNA of a malaria-causing parasite and of a mosquito that carries it may suggest new ways to combat the deadly disease.
- Chemistry
Nutty and fungi-ble taxol sources
The active ingredient in the anticancer drug taxol has turned up in hazelnuts and fungi.
- Chemistry
Unsung benefits of darker, tasty oils
Processing to erase the distinctive flavors and colors in cooking oils also removes or deactivates compounds that can defuse biologically damaging chemical reactions in the body.
- Earth
A deadly threat in undeployed airbags
The extremely toxic and reactive chemical used to inflate airbags could cause risks to human health and wildlife if accidentally released into the environment.
- Chemistry
The power of caffeine and pale tea
The relatively rare brew known as white tea offers more caffeine than green tea—and perhaps more anticancer activity.
- Health & Medicine
Silencing the BRCA1 gene spells trouble
Some breast cancer patients without a mutation in the BRCA1 gene nevertheless have an incapacitated gene, silenced by a process called hypermethylation of nearby DNA.
