News
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Dose of caution: New antipsychotic meds produce muted benefits
A large clinical trial finds only a modest advantage for a new class of antipsychotic drugs over traditional medications in treating chronic schizophrenia.
- Tech
Circuitry in a nanowire: Novel growth method may transform chips
Made from alternating bands of different semiconductors, a new type of superthin wire incorporates working electronic and optical devices within the wire itself, raising the prospect of making extremely tiny and versatile circuits from the striped filaments.
- Physics
Light comes to halt again—in a solid
By stopping laser light pulses cold in a crystal, storing them, and then releasing them, physicists have achieved the same feat accomplished last year in gases, but this time in a more practical material.
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Unfertilized monkey eggs make stem cells
Scientists have for the first time obtained long-lived stem cells from monkey eggs stimulated to undergo parthenogenesis.
- Health & Medicine
Heart recipients add their own cells
Transplanted hearts incorporate muscle and blood-vessel cells from their new host, suggesting that the heart may regenerate its own tissue.
- Earth
Old pesticide still makes it to Arctic
Molecules of the pesticides known as chlordanes, which belong to a class of long-lasting organochlorine pollutants, circulate in Arctic air years after they were applied in temperate latitudes.
- Health & Medicine
DREAMing away pain
Mutant mice lacking a certain regulatory protein overproduce a natural opioid and are less sensitive to pain than are other mice.
- Archaeology
Skulls attest to Iron Age scalping
Archaeologists identified four skulls, previously found in southern Siberia, that bore incisions attesting to the practice of scalping in that region around 2,500 years ago.
- Materials Science
Carbon pods are more than a pack of peas
Researchers have found that they can manipulate the electronic properties of nanoscopic carbon structures.
- Health & Medicine
An El Niño link with a tropical disease?
An analysis of recent outbreaks of an often fatal disease in Peru may strengthen a link between the malady and the warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean known as El Niño.
- Humans
Storm warnings take new tone of voice
The National Weather Service is now testing new computer-generated voices that will be used in the agency's broadcasts of severe storm warnings on NOAA Weather Radio.
- Earth
New way of gauging reservoir evaporation
Scientists have developed a new way to estimate the evaporation of water from large reservoirs that, if adopted, would replace a labor-intensive procedure based on decades-old technology.
