News
- Ecosystems
Sea Change: People have affected what penguins eat
Adélie penguins in Antarctica significantly changed their eating habits about 200 years ago, after whaling and other human activities transformed the ocean ecosystem.
- Health & Medicine
Tumor Suicide: Gene therapy makes cancer cells self-destruct
Microscopic bubbles of fat that deliver a suicide gene to tumor cells show success in treating pancreatic cancer in mice.
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Anemone reveals complex past
The starlet sea anemone, a primitive creature with ancient evolutionary roots, has a surprisingly complex genome.
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Adding to nature’s repertoire
Modified mouse cells make proteins that include synthetic amino acids in addition to the 20 natural ones.
- Tech
More bang for the biofuel buck
Microbes that ferment glycerol to ethanol could add an economically valuable new ingredient to the biofuel industry.
- Earth
As the last ice age waned, a great lake was born
Lake Agassiz, a huge and now vanished freshwater lake, formed almost 14,000 years ago, toward the end of the last ice age.
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B drug creates HIV resistance
A hepatitis B drug spurs resistance to HIV drugs in people infected with both diseases.
- Chemistry
Gooey solution to a sticky problem
A new, gooey, and potentially useful protein has been extracted from the bodies of jellyfish that overpopulate the seas around Japan.
- Planetary Science
Dust delays Martian rover
A dust storm has delayed the descent of the Mars rover Opportunity into Victoria crater.
- Health & Medicine
Mouse method turns skin cells to stem cells
Reprogrammed mouse skin cells that act as stem cells may offer an alternative for research involving embryos.
- Health & Medicine
Spermicide Flip Side: Compound may promote papillomavirus infection
The widely used spermicide nonoxynol-9 may boost the infectiousness of human papillomavirus, mouse tests show.
- Physics
Dropping the Ball: Air pressure helps objects sink into sand
A ball plunges deeper into sand under atmospheric pressure than under a vacuum, because the presence of air allows sand to flow like a liquid.
