News
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Illness linked to microbe in group that makes vinegar
Researchers have identified a new bacterium in a severely ill patient.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Strep vaccine stirs antibody production
An experimental vaccine against the microbe that causes strep throat can induce a potent immune response in adults.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Eating disorders may have autoimmune roots
Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa may be autoimmune diseases, according to a new study.
- Materials Science
Explosive tempers
Researchers have demonstrated that carbon nanotubes, once ignited, can detonate explosives.
- Animals
Proxy Vampire: Spider eats blood by catching mosquitoes
Researchers studying food preferences among spiders report finding the first one with a taste for vertebrate blood.
By Susan Milius -
High Times for Brain Growth: Marijuana-like drug multiplies neurons
A drug that functions as concentrated marijuana does may spur the process by which the brain gives birth to new nerve cells.
- Chemistry
Chemical Dancing: Chemists choreograph molecular moves for Nobel honor
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three scientists for their work on a versatile strategy for synthesizing all manner of chemical compounds in an environmentally friendly way.
- Anthropology
Encore for Evolutionary Small-Timers: Tiny human cousins get younger with new finds
Excavations in an Indonesian cave have yielded more fossils of short, upright creatures that lived as recently as 12,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Drought’s heat killed Southwest’s piñon forests
The heat accompanying a drought and a plague of bark beetles seem to explain the deaths of swathes of piñon pine trees across the Southwest in 2002 and 2003.
By Ben Harder - Tech
Road Warriors: Robotic vehicles triumph over desert obstacles
In a landmark contest that has spurred advances in robotic-vehicle technology, five driverless racing machines piloted themselves over more than 200 kilometers of rugged desert terrain.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Vaccine Clears Major Hurdle: Injections offer new tool against cervical cancers
An experimental vaccine against the virus that causes most cancers of the cervix has passed a test typically needed for regulatory approval.
By Nathan Seppa - Paleontology
Raptor Line: Fossil finds push back dinosaur ancestry
Fossils of a newly discovered raptor dinosaur species suggest that the reptile's lineage is older and more widespread than previously suspected.
By Sid Perkins