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19354
It is quite sad that your otherwise-excellent publication systematically fails to report error bars in your reports. Time and again I read articles and am left wondering whether the effect reported is even statistically significant. As just one example, this article said that the rate of subsequent infection from breast milk dropped from 12 percent […]
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Treatment helps newborns avoid HIV
Giving healthy newborns whose mothers are infected with HIV a combination of anti-HIV drugs shortly after birth makes the infants less likely to contract the virus through breastfeeding.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Sweet-toothed microbe tapped for power
Using a newly discovered bacterium that both frees electrons from sugars and injects those charges straight into electric circuits, scientists have created a fuel cell that converts carbohydrates to electricity with extraordinary efficiency.
By Peter Weiss - Earth
Gulf War vets face elevated ALS risk
Two studies suggest that veterans of the 1991 Gulf War are at elevated risk of developing the fatal neurodegenerative condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) compared with other military personnel and with the general population.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Balance benefits from noisy insoles
Sending subliminal vibrations to nerves on the bottoms of feet helps people, especially the elderly, keep their balance.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Flame retardants take a vacation
The lifetime in blood of flame- retarding diphenyl ethers, now-ubiquitous pollutants, ranges from 2 weeks to 2 years, Swedish researchers find.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Cocoa puffs up insulin in blood
Eating foods flavored with cocoa powder as opposed to other flavorings stimulates surplus production of the sugar-processing hormone insulin, but the metabolic implications of the finding aren’t yet known.
By Ben Harder - Earth
New PCBs?
New studies have begun linking toxic risks with a ubiquitous family of flame retardants.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
The Nature of Things
An earth scientist's proposed alternative periodic table of elements is emblematic of the growing desire among scientists to recast this 130-year-old chart.
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From the October 21, 1933, issue
COULD YOU DO THIS AT 18 MONTHS? Could you climb a smooth slide as the baby on the front cover does when you were a year and a half old? Of course not. But perhaps you could have, had you been given the training that 18-month-old Johnny, pictured in one of his favorite exercises, has […]
By Science News -
Loss of Smell
To many people, the ability to sense all sorts of odors is a normal occurrence and something that they take for granted. Some people, however, do suffer from a loss or disturbance of a sense of smell–a condition known as anosmia. Created by Helen Gatcum and Tim Jacob of Cambridge University, these Web pages provide […]
By Science News -