News
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DNA-cutting enzyme looks like scissors
One type of restriction enzyme not only cuts a DNA strand but also looks like a pair of scissors.
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Distressed amoebas can call for help
Amoebas having trouble dividing produce a chemical signal that draws other amoebas to the scene.
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EarthPOPs in the butter
Governments may be able to monitor trends in the release and transport of persistent organic pollutants by sampling butter.
By Janet Raloff -
EarthLeaden calcium supplements
Consuming calcium along with lead limits, and may prevent, the body's absorption of the toxicant.
By Janet Raloff -
Did males get bigger or females smaller?
It's time to stop assuming that standard gender differences in birds come from males getting bigger rather than from females getting smaller.
By Susan Milius -
PhysicsFrigid ‘dynamite’ assembles into superatom
Although it's now the fifth element to be made into the strange state of ultracold matter known as Bose-Einstein condensate, helium may prove to be the most revealing so far because of unusually high energies within the newly condensed atoms.
By Peter Weiss -
Health & MedicineVeggies prevent cancer through key protein
An international team of researchers has identified a protein that helps compounds in some vegetables prevent cancer.
By Linda Wang -
AstronomySome of galaxy’s dark matter comes to light
A new study adds to the evidence that astronomers have unveiled some of the dark matter in our galaxy and that it's pretty ordinary stuff—white dwarfs, the cold, compact embers of low-mass stars.
By Ron Cowen -
EarthThick ice scraped rock bottom in Arctic
Scuffs, scrapes, and gouges found atop undersea plateaus and ridges in the Arctic Ocean suggest that kilometer-thick ice shelves covered much of the ocean there during some previous ice ages.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & MedicineStudy reveals male link to preeclampsia
Men who were born of mothers who had the pregnancy complication preeclampsia are roughly twice as likely to father a child through preeclamptic pregnancy than are men who were born of mothers who had a normal pregnancy.
By Nathan Seppa -
TechNew nanosize detector picks through DNA
Researchers have made a device that can differentiate nearly identical DNA molecules, which might lead to sequencing at unprecedented speeds.
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AnthropologyFossil Skull Diversifies Family Tree
A 3.5-million-year-old skull found in Kenya represents a group of species in the human evolutionary family that evolved separately from australopithecines such as Lucy's kind in Ethiopia.
By Bruce Bower