News
- Plants
Traveling tubers
Potato varieties from Chile arrived in Europe several years before the blights of the mid-1800s, a new analysis of DNA from old plant collections reveals.
- Planetary Science
Dusty Clues: Study suggests no dearth of Earths
A new study suggests that many, or perhaps most, sunlike stars have planets much like Earth.
- Earth
Seafloor Chemistry: Life’s building blocks made inorganically
Hydrocarbons in fluids spewing from hydrothermal vents on the seafloor in the central Atlantic were produced by inorganic chemical reactions deep within the ocean crust, a finding with implications for the possible origins of life.
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- Health & Medicine
New route to insulin-making cells
Researchers have found cells resembling stem cells in the mouse pancreas, suggesting new ways to treat diabetes.
- Earth
A crack and a fault in paradise
Mauna Loa, Hawaii's most massive volcano, may be splitting the Earth's crust.
- Animals
Very brown sheep have a dark side
Big, dark sheep on a Scottish island are not breaking the rules of evolution after all.
- Health & Medicine
Receptor may be cancer accomplice
Suppressing a receptor protein called neuropilin-2 slows colon cancer growth in mice.
- Earth
Fabulon: Looking less fabulous
The source of polychlorinated biphenyls found heavily tainting some homes—and their dwellers—appears to be a durable topcoat for hardwood floors that was widely used a half-century ago.
- Materials Science
Fishy flash
Fish alter the growth of crystals in their skin, making it supershiny.
- Tech
Smells like DNA
By reshuffling the chemical letters of the genetic code, scientists have made short strands of DNA that can distinguish several different smells, such as explosives and food preservatives.
- Health & Medicine
Bariatric Reversal: Stomach surgery curbs some patients’ diabetes
Weight-loss stomach surgery in obese people with type 2 diabetes sends the disease into remission in some patients.
