News
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Health & MedicineRare marrow cells tackle deadly immune reaction
Researchers have developed a new technique to counter graft-versus-host disease, a common complication of treating blood cancers with marrow-cell transfusions.
By Ben Harder -
EarthLab tests hint at where xenon hides out
Results of recent experiments in which scientists squeezed a mixture of xenon and powdered quartz at high temperatures and pressures may explain why the gas is found at relatively low concentrations in the atmosphere.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & MedicineEbola may travel on the wing
Fruit bats can carry the Ebola virus, suggesting that they may spread it in Africa.
By Nathan Seppa -
AstronomyA puny way to make planets
Brown dwarfs are failures in the star-making business, but new observations reveal that they may still succeed in growing planets.
By Ron Cowen -
TechNanotubes spring eternal
Researchers have discovered that forests of carbon nanotubes squish and expand like foams, but with extraordinary resilience.
By Peter Weiss -
PhysicsPeek-a-bubble
Physicists made a stable, doughnut-shaped air bubble in water by encasing the gas ring in beads that form a stiff shell.
By Peter Weiss -
Health & MedicineTomorrow’s Clot Stoppers? New anticoagulants show promise
Two experimental drugs could become alternatives to warfarin and a class of other products that are used widely to protect against potentially fatal blood clots.
By Ben Harder -
Brain Training Puts Big Hurt on Intense Pain: Volunteers learn to translate imaging data into neural-control tool
Using brain-imaging technology, researchers have trained people to control activity in a pain-related brain area by using mental techniques, thus enabling them to reduce the intensity of temporary or chronic pain.
By Bruce Bower -
AstronomyCosmic Expansion: Supernovas shed light on dark energy
A new study of light from supernovas provides additional hints that dark energy, the mysterious entity revving up the expansion of the universe, might be distributed uniformly throughout space and time.
By Ron Cowen -
TechReaction 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.
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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.
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EarthTB 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.
By Susan Milius