Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
When selenium is scarce, brain battles testes for it
In competition for selenium, testes draw the nutrient away from the brain.
- Plants
Genetic battle of the sexes plays out in cukes and melons
Genetics reveals new approach to preventing inbred seeds and encouraging more fruitful crops.
By Susan Milius - Plants
Ancient gardeners saved the gourd
Domestication might have helped early vine plants like pumpkin survive after seed-dispersing megafauna went extinct.
- Health & Medicine
Study brews up more evidence for coffee’s health benefits
Drinking up to five cups of coffee a day reduced the risk of dying early from heart and brain diseases and suicide.
- Anthropology
DNA puts Neandertal relatives in Siberia for 60,000 years
Recovered DNA suggests Denisovans inhabited Siberia for around 60,000 years.
By Bruce Bower - Life
Microscopes have come a long way since 1665
A 350-year-old drawing in Robert Hooke’s Micrographia and an award-winning photo demonstrate the evolution of the microscope.
By Andrew Grant - Genetics
New catalog of human genetic variation could improve diagnosis
Study of human protein-coding variation reveals which genes are more likely to be involved in genetic diseases.
- Climate
Geoengineering is world’s last hope, new book argues
Geoengineering is humankind’s only viable solution to curb climate change impacts, a journalist contends in The Planet Remade.
- Life
‘Racing Extinction’ documents plight of endangered species
The new documentary "Racing Extinction" offers hope that people can halt the sixth mass extinction.
- Health & Medicine
Chilly cages may skew disease studies in lab mice
Mice studies on diet and human disease might be marred by stress of cold temperatures in their cages.
- Neuroscience
Viva vagus: Wandering nerve could lead to range of therapies
Researchers are testing ways to stimulate the vagus nerve to treat a slew of ailments.
- Planetary Science
Two-stage process formed moon, simulations suggest
Certain elements absent from lunar samples but present on Earth might be hidden deep inside the moon, a relic from how it was put together.