News
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Autism’s DNA Trail: Gene variant tied to developmental disorder
A study of more than 700 families with children diagnosed with autism has identified a gene variant, already known to affect brain formation, that boosts a person's chances of developing this severe disorder.
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Air’s oxygen content constrains insect growth
The size to which insects grow is limited by their need to route oxygen to tissues in their legs.
- Earth
Waters near croplands impair frogs’ immunity
Pesticide-containing waters leave frogs more susceptible to fungal infections than pristine environments do.
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Cloning is most efficient using non–stem cells
Fully matured cells can be used to clone animals.
- Animals
Tropical diversity came with time
Species in richly diverse tropics don't evolve faster than do species in temperate zones.
- Health & Medicine
Antiviral drug may limit herpes spread
In people with genital herpes, the drug famciclovir sharply reduces virus shedding from the genitalia.
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Prepared brains achieve insight
Sudden verbal insights arise from distinct brain operations that focus attention and facilitate access to word knowledge.
- Health & Medicine
Do acid blockers let microbes reach the colon?
Suppressing stomach acid while taking antibiotics may allow drug-resistant bacteria to colonize the intestines.
- Astronomy
Record-breaking galaxy
Looking ever deeper into space and farther back in time, astronomers have found a galaxy more distant than any other known in the universe.
- Planetary Science
Web Special: Clay magic on Mars
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just completed a week of picture taking from as low as 300 kilometers above the surface of the Red Planet.
- Chemistry
Pretty in Pictures: Details of molecular machinery gain Nobel
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to a researcher who determined the structure, in atomic detail, of RNA polymerase taken from yeast cells.
- Earth
Nearly Naked: Large swath of Pacific lacks seafloor sediment
Little or no sediment has accumulated on a broad patch of ocean bottom in the remote South Pacific, the result of a combination of factors that probably can't be found anywhere else on Earth.
