All Stories by Carolyn Barry
- Archaeology
Rolling Back the Years
Scientists are refining carbon dating techniques to make the archaeological timeline more precise.
- Health & Medicine
The Breast Solution
Reversing earlier advice, health authorities now say that babies of HIV-positive mothers in poor countries have a better chance of avoiding infection if they feed only on breast milk that's not supplemented with other food.
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Orangutans hand it to researchers
Orangutans try to communicate by gesturing when they think they're being misunderstood, much as people do when playing charades.
- Earth
Oxygen Rocks: Volcanoes spurred early atmospheric change
Earth owes its oxygen-rich atmosphere to a change in volcanic activity about 2.5 billion years ago.
- Animals
Bats hum for sugar too
Some nectar-feeding bats metabolize sugars as rapidly as hummingbirds do.
- Tech
Fire Inside
The events of 9/11 put new urgency into efforts to design buildings able to withstand the structural damage that fire can cause.
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Mood Bugs: Beetle changes color in fluid fashion
A Central American beetle changes color in a novel way, using its body fluid to control the reflectivity of its shell.
- Earth
Drug Overflow: Pharmaceutical factories foul waters in India
A treatment plant in India that processes waste from drug factories feeds enormous amounts of antibiotics and other drugs into local waterways.
- Earth
Slick Death: Oil-spill treatment kills coral
Chemicals used to disperse marine oil spills are more harmful to coral than the oil itself.
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Sweet Gatekeeper: Receptor depends on sugar and water
Water and sugar molecules play a previously unsuspected role in the way that a ubiquitous receptor passes chemical messages between cells.
- Health & Medicine
Persistent Prions: Soilbound agents are more potent
Prions, deformed proteins that cause brain-destroying diseases such as chronic wasting disease or mad cow disease, are more infectious when bound to soil particles.
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B drug creates HIV resistance
A hepatitis B drug spurs resistance to HIV drugs in people infected with both diseases.
