News
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- Life
These colors don’t run
A chameleon employs different color-changing defenses depending on its predator.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Donor dilemma
Blood donors age 16 or 17 are more apt to faint than older donors.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Reviving extinct DNA
For the first time, scientists have resurrected a piece of DNA from an extinct animal — the Tasmanian tiger. The researchers engineered mice with a piece of the long-gone marsupial's DNA that turns on a collagen gene in cartilage-producing cells.
- Tech
I, computer
Bacteria that can "flip pancakes" with their DNA are the first microbes engineered to be living computers.
- Health & Medicine
Itchy and scratchy
People with a close relative who has had shingles face a heightened risk of getting the skin disease, and should probably be first in line to get the vaccine.
By Nathan Seppa -
- Physics
Catching the cell in action
A light microscope with high resolution may enable scientists to view the 3-D structures within living cells.
By Tia Ghose - Life
Sepsis buster
The Ashwell receptor, a sugar-binding protein on liver cells, helps fight sepsis by clearing blood-clotting factors. The discovery clears up years of mystery surrounding the receptor’s function.
- Earth
Eddies in the deep Earth
The flow of molten material in our planet's outer core is the prime source of Earth's magnetic field. Localized blips in the magnetic field suggest this flow can fluctuate rapidly over large areas.
By Sid Perkins - Humans
ISEF winners announced
More than 1,500 young scientists flexed their mental muscles this week at the world's largest high-school science competition.
- Space
Twisted roots for solar jets
Researchers have constructed the first 3-D image of a jet of gas zooming out of the sun's outer atmosphere, revealing the role that twisted magnetic fields play in generating such outbursts.
By Ron Cowen