News
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Health & Medicine
Garlic interferes with HIV drug
Garlic supplements interact negatively with a protease inhibitor medication taken by people infected with HIV.
By Ben Harder -
Health & Medicine
A glass of red may keep arteries loose
A newly uncovered effect of a compound abundant in red wines may provide the mechanism needed to explain how reds could outperform whites and rosés in reducing heart disease.
By Ben Harder -
Health & Medicine
Prenatal folate averts child leukemia
Even a little supplementary folate during pregnancy now appears to reduce the risk that the child will develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
By Ben Harder -
Astronomy
Sampling the sun
A spacecraft has begun a 30-month mission in which it will collect samples of the solar wind and bring them back to Earth.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Watching a dying star transform
Astronomers have for the first time caught a dying star at the very beginning of a brief, shining period, when it's known as a planetary nebula.
By Ron Cowen -
For some heart patients, days are numbered
Cardiac deaths among Chinese and Japanese residents of the United States peak on the fourth day of each month, possibly due to psychological stress from their widespread belief that the number 4 is linked to death.
By Bruce Bower -
Ecosystems
Mistletoe, of all things, helps juniper trees
A mistletoe that grows on junipers may do the trees a favor by attracting birds that spread the junipers' seeds.
By Susan Milius -
Earth
It’s bottoms up for iron at sea’s surface
Sediments drilled from the seafloor off Antarctica suggest that the dissolved iron in surface waters that fuels much of the region's biological productivity comes from upwelling deep water currents, not from dust blowing off the continents.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
Vaccine prevents urinary-tract infections
An experimental vaccine designed to repel 10 common bacteria that cause bladder infections has cleared a key hurdle by proving safe and effective in a group of women.
By Nathan Seppa -
Astronomy
Galaxy survey sheds light on dark matter
Astronomers are examining some of the brightest objects in the universe to learn about the darkest stuff.
By Ron Cowen -
Tech
Magnetic refrigerator gets down and homey
Because it uses a permanent magnet, a new, prototype magnetic cooler takes up so little space that it could give rise to ordinary household refrigerators and air conditioners that run on magnetism instead of volatile liquids.
By Peter Weiss -
Health & Medicine
Virus Shapes Risk of Multiple Sclerosis
A huge, decade-long study bolsters the link between Epstein-Barr virus and the autoimmune disorder multiple sclerosis by showing that the common infection is more active in people who later develop symptoms of the disease.
By Ben Harder