News
- Health & Medicine
Outwitting TB: Enhanced vaccine protects mice in lab tests
An enhanced vaccine appears to offer better protection against tuberculosis than the current version does, a study in mice suggests.
By Nathan Seppa - Materials Science
Fine Fabric: New, fast way to make sheets of nanotubes
Scientists have come up with a way to efficiently produce thin, transparent sheets of carbon nanotubes that are several meters long.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Inhaling salt raises blood pressure
People who work in environments where large amounts of salt particles hang in the air may literally breathe their way to high blood pressure.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Tracking busy genes to get at cancer
By identifying which genes are overactive in certain breast tumors, researchers have discovered a genetic signature that could help doctors predict if and when a woman's cancer might spread to her lungs.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Roughing up counterfeiters
A new anticounterfeiting scheme generates unique, reproducible identity codes that could be used to authenticate passports, credit cards, and other items on the basis of inherent, microscopic irregularities in the items' surfaces.
By Peter Weiss -
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A Slumber Not So Sweet: Loss of brain cells that regulate breathing may cause death during sleep
Elderly people may die in their sleep because they gradually lose brain cells that control breathing.
- Health & Medicine
New Carrier: Common tick implicated in spread of fever
The brown dog tick is capable of spreading the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
By Nathan Seppa - Astronomy
Three’s Company: Asteroid 87 Sylvia and her two moons
Astronomers have for the first time discovered an asteroid with two moons, an indication that the rock is highly porous.
By Ron Cowen - Tech
Electronic Leap: Plastic component may lead to ubiquitous radio tags
Tiny radio circuits cheap enough to be embedded into countless products have moved closer to reality with the development of a fast, plastic semiconductor diode.
By Peter Weiss - Animals
Out of the Jungle: New lemurs found in Madagascar’s forests
Two new species of lemur have been discovered in Madagascar, the only home of these tiny and endangered primates.
- Earth
Methane Maker: Method gets to root of gas from rice paddies
Scientists have singled out microorganisms that appear to be largely responsible for natural emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from rice paddies.
By Sid Perkins