Uncategorized
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ChemistryDanger Detection
Analytical chemists are exploring ways to improve chemical and biological weapons detection.
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Health & MedicineHerbal Lottery
Many herbal-product makers aren't maintaining adequate quality control, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to propose rules that mandate good manufacturing practices.
By Janet Raloff -
19035
I find the ideas promulgated in this article deeply disturbing. The idea of pulling out a couple of chemicals and standardizing them is a turning away from the holism that herbal remedies represent. This is the very essence of the complaint against conventional pharmaceuticals and why people are turning to herbals. That there is a […]
By Science News -
HumansFellowships awarded to Science News writers
Two Science News writers recently received prestigious fellowships.
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Eggs and more grown from mouse stem cells
Stem cells from mouse embryos can be converted into eggs, skin, or heart muscle.
By John Travis -
EarthVermiculite turns toxic
Federal agencies issued a warning that much of the vermiculite ceiling insulation installed a decade or more ago may be tainted with cancer-causing asbestos.
By Janet Raloff -
EarthTo contain gene-altered crops, nip them in the seed
Researchers have demonstrated that, in principle, they can add genes that block genetically modified crops from breeding with conventional varieties and thus from spreading their artificial traits.
By Ben Harder -
MathUncovering a prime failure
Mathematicians have returned to the drawing board after what looked like a dramatic step forward in understanding prime numbers.
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AnthropologyHumanity’s pedestal lowered again?
A new genetic study reaches the controversial conclusion that chimpanzees belong to the genus Homo, just as people do.
By Bruce Bower -
19243
The discovery that humans share 99.4 percent of their genetic sequences with chimps does not make chimps like us in any meaningful sense or lower “humanity’s pedestal” in the slightest degree. In some 5 million years on Earth the sum total of chimps’ cultural achievements has been exactly 0. In only 200,000 years, modern humans […]
By Science News -
Health & MedicineGene therapy thwarts hepatitis C in mice
Gene therapy that induces infected liver cells to self-destruct slows hepatitis C dramatically in mice.
By Nathan Seppa -
PhysicsTaking a shine to number 100
Scientists for the first time literally shed light on the properties of radioactive fermium.
By Peter Weiss