News
- Tech
Reaction in Hand: Microreactor produces radioactive probe in a jiffy
A miniature chemical reactor that whips up a diagnostic tool could widen the availability of positron-emission tomography (PET) scans.
-
Shades of Flesh Tone: Tests reveal gene for people’s skin color
Researchers have identified a gene that they propose plays a major role in determining a person's skin color.
- Earth
TB Dilemma: Badger refugees complicate culling
Two new analyses bring an ironic twist to the heated debate over whether badgers in Britain should be killed to prevent them from spreading tuberculosis among cattle.
- Earth
Glacial Change: Greenland’s ice loss doubled in 2005
A host of observations suggests that Greenland's ice sheet diminished this year at a rate more than twice that seen just a few years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Shots often don’t reach muscle
Standard 3-centimeter needles are too short to penetrate the layer of fat in the buttocks of most women and most obese men, so injected medications aimed at muscle often don't reach their targets.
- Health & Medicine
New software aids virtual colonoscopy
A computer program helps radiologists spot dangerous growths in the colon without probing inside the body.
- Astronomy
Dark shadows
New radio telescope images of the center of the Milky Way make an even more compelling case that a supermassive black hole resides there.
- Earth
Microbe polishes off pollutant
Researchers have determined how long a pesticide residue would remain in the environment if the microbe Pseudomonas pavonaceae didn't metabolize it.
-
Best Friend’s Genome: Dog’s DNA sheds light on human genetics, too
Scientists have published the genome of a boxer, a detailed comparison of the dog's genome with the genomes of mice and people, and a study of genetic variation among dog breeds.
- Ecosystems
When Worms Fly: Insect larvae can survive bird guts
Insects can travel as larval stowaways in the guts of migrating birds.
-
Mirror Cells’ Fading Spark: Empathy-related neurons may turn off in autism
Brain cells implicated in the ability to imitate and empathize with others largely fail to function in children with autism, a new brain-imaging investigation suggests.
- Planetary Science
Red Planet Express: Mars spacecraft traces a watery tale
A Mars-orbiting spacecraft has provided new details about when and where liquid water existed on the planet.
