Carolyn Barry

All Stories by Carolyn Barry

  1. Archaeology

    Rolling Back the Years

    Scientists are refining carbon dating techniques to make the archaeological timeline more precise.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Animals

    Bats hum for sugar too

    Some nectar-feeding bats metabolize sugars as rapidly as hummingbirds do.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. Earth

    Slick Death: Oil-spill treatment kills coral

    Chemicals used to disperse marine oil spills are more harmful to coral than the oil itself.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Hepatitis B drug creates HIV resistance

    A hepatitis B drug spurs resistance to HIV drugs in people infected with both diseases.