News
- Earth
No-stick chemicals can mimic estrogen
Some of the perfluorinated compounds used to impart nonstick properties to fabrics and cookware can not only activate a receptor for sex hormones but also inappropriately feminize fish.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Sharks, dolphins store pollutants
Florida's top aquatic predators are rapidly accumulating high concentrations of brominated flame retardants and other persistent toxic chemicals.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Could Prozac muscle out mussels?
Antidepressant drugs may be depressing wild-mussel populations.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Test identifies people at cardiac risk
Measurement of an electrical abnormality in the heart aids doctors in determining who is most at risk for cardiac arrest.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Belated angioplasty saves no lives
A common heart procedure called angioplasty doesn't save lives if it is performed more than a couple of days after a heart attack.
By Ben Harder -
Oceans reveal secrets of viruses
Scientists have completed the first survey of virus DNA in oceans around the world.
- Tech
Safety practices surveyed
Nanotechnology companies and laboratories largely rely on the same safety practices that they use when working with conventional chemicals, an international survey reports.
- Earth
Balancing Act: El Niños and dust both affect coral bleaching
Most of the annual variation in the extent of coral bleaching in the Caribbean is driven by two factors: the amount of dust and other particles suspended in the atmosphere, and the climate phenomenon known as El Niño.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Ticking toward Trouble: Long-term rise in heart rate portends death
Men whose hearts beat faster over time are likely to die earlier than those whose hearts keep an unchanging cadence year after year, according to a 20-year study.
By Ben Harder -
Age Becomes Her: Male chimpanzees favor old females as mates
Male chimpanzees in Uganda prefer to mate with older females, a possible sign of males' need to identify successful mothers in a promiscuous mating system.
By Bruce Bower - Physics
Super Silicon: Top semiconductor turns into a superconductor
A heavy dose of boron transforms silicon, the superhero material of electronics, into a superconductor.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Kidney Progress: Drug slows cyst growth
The trial drug roscovitine has been shown to reverse polycystic kidney disease in mice.
By Nathan Seppa