News
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Old viruses have new tricks
Invading viruses can trick a cell into turning off its defense mechanisms.
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Antidepressants trim suicide tries
Treating depression with antidepressant drugs reduces the risk of suicide.
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Chemical Conversation: Red blood cells send a signal that makes platelets less sticky
Red blood cells can send a chemical signal that makes platelets less sticky, easing blood flow through narrow vessels.
- Health & Medicine
Brain Seasoning: A common spice could deter Alzheimer’s
A compound in the curry spice turmeric restores the ability of immune system cells to destroy plaques linked to Alzheimer's disease.
- Animals
Den Mothers: Bears shift dens as ice deteriorates
As Arctic ice has dwindled, pregnant polar bears in northern Alaska have become more likely to dig their birthing dens on land or nearshore ice than on floating masses of sea ice.
- Computing
Check on Checkers: In perfect game, there’s no winner
Thanks to an immense calculation that worked out every possible game position, computers can now play a flawless game of checkers and force a draw every time.
- Health & Medicine
Persistent Prions: Soilbound agents are more potent
Prions, deformed proteins that cause brain-destroying diseases such as chronic wasting disease or mad cow disease, are more infectious when bound to soil particles.
- Earth
Birth of an Island: Megaflood severed Europe from Britain
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the spillover from an immense glacial lake carved a chasm that in a matter of weeks separated what is now Britain from continental Europe.
- Health & Medicine
AIDS Abated: Genome scans illuminate immune control of HIV
Three genetic variations picked out by powerful whole-genome scans help explain why some people develop AIDS quickly while others keep it at bay.
- Health & Medicine
fryPod: Lightning strikes iPod users
A jogger wearing an iPod music player suffered second-degree ear and neck burns, burst eardrums, and jaw fractures after lightning struck a nearby tree.
- Materials Science
Crystal matchmaker
Nonperiodic structures called quasicrystals can act as interfaces between different crystal structures that would ordinarily not stick to each other.
- Tech
Double-decker solar cell
A two-layer, polymer-based solar cell has good efficiency and could be cheap to mass-produce.
