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- Health & Medicine
Giant rats detect tuberculosis
Animals can be trained to sniff out TB in sputum samples, adding to accuracy of microscope test, a study from Tanzania shows.
- Health & Medicine
Childhood epilepsy that lasts into adulthood triples mortality
The added risk occurs in patients whose seizures persist, a 40-year study in Finland shows.
- Life
Neandertal relative bred with humans
Known only through DNA extracted from a scrap of bone, a Siberian hominid group suggests a much more complicated prehistory for Homo sapiens.
- Space
South Pole neutrino detector complete
Scientists lower the last of more than 5,000 sensors into the Antarctic ice, completing the mile-deep IceCube observatory.
- Life
Genes separate Africa’s elephant herds
Genetic work reveals forest and savanna pachyderms as distinct species.
- Humans
Periodic table gets some flex
IUPAC committee replaces fuzzy atomic weights with more accurate ranges
- Space
Space rock surprise
Meteorite analysis suggests it may be possible to make amino acids in the absence of water, boosting the chances of finding life elsewhere in the universe.
- Life
Gene genesis
About a quarter of present-day life's DNA blueprint had been sketched out by 2.8 billion years ago, a new analysis finds.
- Animals
Female chimps play with ‘dolls’
Youngsters mimic mothering by cradling sticks, reigniting debate over sex differences in toy choices.
- Space
Cosmic reincarnation idea may be dead
Cosmological patterns that were recently put forth as evidence for a pre–Big Bang universe are easily explained by current theory, critics say.
- Earth
Bugged forests bad for climate
Trees savaged by pine beetles are slow to recover their ecological function as greenhouse gas sponges.
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2010 Science News of the Year: Science & Society
Credit: Ayimages/Istockphoto Vaccine link to autism dismissed In February, Lancet formally retracted a 1998 study that had kindled a storm of opposition to vaccines (SN Online: 2/3/10). The research suggested that autism arose in a handful of children after the kids received shots to prevent measles, mumps and rubella. The study’s lead author committed several […]
