News
- Humans
R&D budget should ease biomed envy
President Clinton's science budget for 2001 proposes to narrow a gap that's yawned in recent years between lusher funding for biomedicine and leaner support for the physical sciences.
- Astronomy
Solar magnetism: Memories are made of this
Despite all its upheavals, the sun's magnetic field has a built-in memory, allowing it to return to its original position and configuration.
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Drugs order bacteria to commit suicide
Seeking to explain how antibiotics work, scientists find a protein that commands bacteria to kill themselves.
- Earth
El Niño: It’s back!
An increase in ocean temperatures in the central Pacific heralds the onset of El Niño, whose effects should show up in the United States this fall.
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Malaria parasite reveals old age
The DNA of a malaria-causing parasite suggests it is at least 100,000 years old.
- Health & Medicine
Researchers Probe Cell-Phone Effects
Scientists are trying to find out whether biological changes associated with cell-phone use represent health risks.
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Biological clock study challenged
A report disputes the controversial notion that bright light applied to skin can reset a person's biological clock.
- Health & Medicine
Worm genes take on bacterial foes
Creatures as simple as worms have an effective immune defense.
- Archaeology
Ancient birth brick emerges in Egypt
Investigations at a 3,700-year-old Egyptian town have yielded a painted brick that was used in childbirth rituals.
- Health & Medicine
No worry that this secret will leak
The recently discovered protein angiopoietin-1 appears to protect blood vessels from leaking, a finding with implications for research into diseases that involve swelling, such as arthritis and asthma.
- Health & Medicine
Lung cancer gene has gender bias
The X chromosome's gastrin-releasing peptide receptor gene is turned on by nicotine to produce a protein that promotes lung cancer, a combination of factors that could explain why women are more susceptible to the disease than men are.
- Earth
Just how much do U.S. roads matter?
A Harvard researcher calculates that roads directly influence the ecology of a fifth of U.S. land area.
