News
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Groomed for Trouble: Mice yield obsessive-compulsive insights
Mice lacking a gene that makes a certain brain protein display behaviors much like those of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a poorly understood psychiatric ailment.
- Animals
High Volume, Low Fidelity: Birds are less faithful as sounds blare
In noisy surroundings, normally faithful female zebra finches flirt with unfamiliar males.
- Health & Medicine
Infectious Obesity: Adenovirus fattens stem cells
Some cases of obesity may result from infection by a virus that can transform adult stem cells into fat-storing cells.
- Health & Medicine
If You Can Stomach It: Obesity surgery extends life span
Drastic weight loss achieved through gastric bypass and other stomach surgeries improves long-term survival for very obese people.
- Physics
Frizzed molecular carpets
Measurements of the speed with which heat travels along single hydrocarbon molecules could aid in the design of molecular electronics.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine targets ovarian-cancer cells
A vaccine for ovarian cancer enables some women who've undergone chemotherapy to stay in remission.
- Archaeology
Map yields new view of ancient city
A new map shows that Angkor, the world's largest preindustrial city, covered more than 1,000 square kilometers of what is now Cambodia and possessed an elaborate canal system.
- Health & Medicine
Lithium might help bone healing
In mice, treatment with lithium assists in the production of a bone-repair protein and improves the healing of fractures.
- Earth
Cat disease associated with flame retardants
An epidemic of hyperthyroidism in house cats may be the result of environmental exposure to certain flame retardants.
- Earth
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature
Throwing tiny particles into the atmosphere to counteract global warming could cause extended droughts and other weather disruptions.
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The origins of immunity?
In social amoebas, sluglike clusters of usually independent organisms, certain cells take on a protective role that hints at the origin of immune systems in higher animals.
- Animals
Tail singers
The male Anna's hummingbird impresses females and intimidates other males by making a whipping sound with its tail feathers.
