News
- Health & Medicine
New human virus tied to obesity
Researchers have identified the second member of a class of human viruses that may increase people's susceptibility to obesity.
By Ben Harder - Physics
Magnetism piece fits no-resistance puzzle
Experimenters have found evidence that a type of magnetic behavior correlated with the onset of zero electrical resistance in some so-called high-temperature superconductors is generic to the whole class of those materials, yielding a possible clue to how the substances lose their resistance.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Two steps forward, one step back
Just a few days after the National Institutes of Health announced it was canceling a large AIDS-vaccine trial, researchers reported preliminary results from a new vaccine that appears safe.
- Health & Medicine
New drugs help battle HIV
Three potential drugs in development rely on novel tactics for attacking the virus that causes AIDS.
- Health & Medicine
Genes predict allergies to drug
Genetic differences among people infected with HIV might help identify the 5 percent of patients who will suffer allergic reactions when given the antiretroviral drug abacavir.
- Health & Medicine
Is HAART hard on the heart?
Two studies came to opposite conclusions on whether multiple-drug regimens known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for people with AIDS also contribute to heart trouble.
- Earth
Underground Soil Economy: Microbes hidden in the dirt react to UV boost
The community of soil microbes may live hidden in the ground, but it still changes when there's more ultraviolet radiation above.
By Susan Milius - Anthropology
DNA Diaspora: Humanity may share tangled genetic roots
A controversial new genetic analysis concludes that Homo sapiens evolved by expanding out of Africa in multiple waves beginning at least 600,000 years ago and then interbreeding, rather than totally replacing close relatives such as the Neandertals.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Genetic Culprit: Mutation increases risk for uterine fibroids
Analysis of DNA from families whose women have been beset by uterine growths reveals a mutation that can predispose women to these so-called fibroids.
By Nathan Seppa - Planetary Science
Odyssey’s First Look: Craft spies signs of ice at the Martian south pole
Astronomers have for the first time found evidence of large amounts of frozen water in the subsurface of Mars.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
When the Mercury Falls: Autumn leaves taint river with poison
Fall foliage that collects in stagnant waterways could release significant doses of a highly toxic form of mercury, which has the potential to accumulate in fish living far downstream.
By Ben Harder - Earth
Space Rocks’ Demo Job: Asteroids, not comets, pummeled early Earth
An analysis of trace elements found in a variety of meteorites suggests that most of the heavenly objects that rained hell on the inner solar system about 3.9 billion years ago were asteroids, not comets.
By Sid Perkins