News
- Earth
A particulate threat to diabetics
As levels of soot and other fine air pollutants increased, so did blood pressure in patients whose disease was not well-controlled, a study finds.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Cause confirmed in bat scourge
White-nose syndrome has devastated bat population in eastern North America.
By Susan Milius - Life
Gut bacteria linked to MS
Gut bacteria appear to play a role in initiating multiple sclerosis in mice.
- Life
Gene makes some pilots get rusty faster
A common DNA variant affects the pace of age-related decline in performance on skilled tasks like flying a plane.
- Humans
Early farmers’ fishy menu
Northern Europeans retained a taste for aquatic foods after farmers arrived 6,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Measles cases up in U.S. and Canada
Both countries report 2011 to be the worst year since the mid-1990s.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Cycads not ‘living fossils’
Though ancient, today’s representatives of the plant group date back to a common ancestor that lived not all that long ago.
By Nick Bascom - Life
Live long, pass it on
A tendency for a lengthy life can be inherited for several generations, even when offspring no longer have the genes for it.
- Psychology
Learning to walk on err
Flub-inducing treadmill tasks aid motor learning, with rehab implications.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Malaria vaccine yields protection
In its first large-scale test, the experimental immunization cuts risk of disease in about half of the children getting it and limits severe infections, researchers report.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Teen brains’ growing pains
Testing captures substantial changes in some youths’ IQs and gray matter.
- Life
Stopping a real-life ‘Contagion’
An antibody treatment fends off the lethal Hendra virus in monkeys and may also work against the equally dangerous Nipah virus.
By Nathan Seppa