Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Early Warning? Inflammatory protein is tied to colon cancer risk
C-reactive protein, an inflammatory protein linked to heart disease, might also signal susceptibility to colon cancer.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
Letters from the Feb. 7, 2004, issue of Science News.
Warm topic I was fascinated by the article on heat production in flowers (“Warm-Blooded Plants?” SN: 12/13/03, p. 379: Warm-Blooded Plants?). It speculated on the evolutionary origins of such thermogenesis and observed how it predominates in ancient lineages of flowering plants like magnolias and water lilies. But thermogenesis goes back much farther than this, for […]
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Malaria drug boosts recovery rates
Adding the herbal-extract drug artesunate to standard malaria treatment reduces the relapse rate, even in areas where the malaria parasite is resistant to standard drugs.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Aging protein saps muscle strength
Proteins crucial for muscle strength begin to function poorly as rats get older.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
HIV outwits immune system, again
The AIDS virus uses immune system proteins to hitch rides on the antibody factories known as B cells, possibly helping it find potential host cells.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Bacteria Provide a Frontline Defense
Bacteria genetically engineered to secrete microbe-killing compounds can fight disease in mice and rats.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Busy hospitals may not be best choice
A large number of heart surgeries done at a hospital doesn't always correlate with a low mortality rate from such operations at the facility.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
Better protection from mad cow disease
The Food and Drug Administration has announced several new measures to keep meat that's potentially infected with mad cow disease out of food supplies.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Surgery removes grenade from soldier’s head
Colombian military doctors extracted an intact grenade from the head of a teenage soldier.
By Ben Harder - Humans
From the January 27, 1934, issue
alt=”Click to view larger image”> FLASH-OVER AT 125,000 VOLTS Beauty is, indeed, the most important if not the only reason for the choice of this week’s front-cover picture. A glass insulator, of the kind that electrically isolates high-tension [power lines] so that they may carry their power uninterruptedly, is shown flashing over after withstanding a […]
By Science News - Humans
The Chosen: A New Crop of Scientific Minds; Student science competition announces finalists
Forty high school students from 14 states and the District of Columbia have been selected to compete for the top prizes in the 2004 Intel Science Talent Search.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Wine Surprise: Heart-protective effect is independent of antioxidants
Two studies in mice suggest that, if wine protects against heart disease, it's probably not because of the antioxidants that the drink contains.