Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Cell transplants combat diabetes in mice
Scientists have successfully reversed diabetes in mice by harvesting immature pancreatic cells that make insulin from one mouse, growing them in culture, and transplanting them into a mouse with the disease, which then recedes.
- Health & Medicine
HIV sexual spread exploits immune sentinels
The virus that causes AIDS latches onto a protein called DC-SIGN to hitch a ride on immune cells in mucus membranes and spread through the body.
- Earth
Hey polluters! This billboard’s for you
Motorists generally like and respond to personalized billboard messages about when an engine tune-up may be warranted.
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Brain cells work together to pay attention
Cells in the brain's cortex may coordinate their electrical activity as attention shifts from visual to tactile information.
- Animals
Hormone still rules no-tadpole frogs
Coqui frogs may skip the tadpole stage, but within the egg, they undergo a metamorphosis ruled by thyroid hormone.
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Tough talk for depressed husbands
Positive comments directed by depressed men to their wives often elicit negative responses from the women, a conversational style that may contribute to the men's mood problems.
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Listen to the shapes
People use still-unspecified acoustic cues to discern the shapes of hidden, vibrating plates.
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Progestin adds to breast cancer risk
Women taking estrogen are more prone to get breast cancer if they are also taking the hormone progestin.
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Alcohol can induce fainting spells
Alcohol imbibed in modest quantities can disrupt the reflex that maintains blood pressure when a person stands up quickly, which may account for why some people faint when they down a few drinks and then stand up.
- Math
Great Computations
From sifting through radio telescope signals for signs of extraterrestrial life to searching for record-breaking prime numbers, home and office computers contribute via the Internet to a variety of research efforts.
- Astronomy
Getting a Clear View
Outfitted with a mirror that flexes several hundred times a second to compensate for the blurring induced by Earth’s atmosphere, one of the world’s sharpest telescopes just got a whole lot sharper.
- Archaeology
Ancient Asian Tools Crossed the Line
Excavations in China yield surprising finds of 800,000-year-old stone hand axes.
