Science News

With the help of a pair of crystals and a wooden stick, the Vikings may have been able to use the sun to navigate across the North Atlantic even after sunset.

A breast cancer therapy that blocks estrogen synthesis to activate cancer-killing genes sometimes loses its effectiveness because the cancer takes over epigenetic mechanisms, including permanent DNA modifications in the ...

Decreased exposure to air pollution in utero is linked with improved childhood developmental and higher levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a key protein for brain development, according to a study of looking at...

A single instrument that can conduct a wide range of biological scans in a fraction of the time and cost of industry standard equipment has been developed. It uses considerably less material and ultra-sensitive detection...

Just as archeologists try to decipher ancient tablets to discern their meaning, cancer biologists are working to decode the purpose of an ancient gene considered one of the most important in cancer research. The p53 gene...

An unprecedented look at five unique blood cells in the human body has been published in a new article, pinpointing the location of key genetic regulators in these cells and providing a new tool that may help scientists ...

It's not the size of the stomach that causes weight loss after a specific type of bariatric surgery, but rather a change in the gut metabolism, say researchers. They have found that following vertical sleeve gastrectomy,...

Gout is on the rise among U.S. men and women, and this piercingly painful and most common form of inflammatory arthritis is turning out to be more complicated than had been thought. The standard way to check for gout is ...

The problems people with autism have with memory formation, higher-level thinking and social interactions may be partially attributable to the activity of receptors inside brain cells, researchers have learned. The recep...

Specialized 3-D MRI scans to precisely measure living and dying tumor tissue to quickly show whether highly toxic chemotherapy - delivered directly through a tumor's blood supply - is working, demonstrates a series of st...

The possibility of making whole-genome sequencing part of routine screening programs for newborns raises ethical, legal and social issues that should be weighed carefully, according to researchers. The question is likely...

Working with genetically engineered mice, neuroscientists report they have identified what they believe is the cause of the vast disintegration of a part of the brain called the corpus striatum in rodents and people with...

Researchers have produced the first comprehensive, detailed map of the way genes work across the major cells and tissues of the human body. The findings describe the complex networks that govern gene activity, and the ne...

The adult offspring of parents who were addicted to drugs or alcohol are more likely to have arthritis, according to a new study. Investigators examined a group of 13,036 adults and found that 20.4 per cent of respondent...

People eat more breakfast cereal, by weight, when flake size is reduced, according to researchers, who showed that when flakes are reduced by crushing, people pour a smaller volume of cereal into their bowls, but still t...

Sea turtles face extinction as enormous fishing nets drown the animals by the thousands.

The woolly mammoth, one of the most studied prehistoric animal and the last in a long line of mammoth species, suffered from widespread birth defects in its final years on Earth. According to new research, evidence sugge...

The arrival of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, carrying three new crew members to the International Space Station, or ISS, was delayed after it failed to fire its steering thrusters for a planned engine maneuver in orbit, NA...

Cognitive decline is a myth, say Michael Ramscar and Harald Baayen. The research behind the idea uses flawed models of how we learn in the real world (full text available to subscribers)     

Shimmering rainbow colors were captured on camera above Venus, marking the first time a so-called "glory" was pictured on another planet besides Earth. The phenomenon also pointed to a mystery in the hothouse planet's at...

The newfound object, called 2012 VP113, joins the dwarf planet Sedna as a resident of a far-flung region called the "inner Oort Cloud." Further, 2012 VP113 and Sedna may have been pulled into their odd orbits by a big, u...

Patches of cells in the outer layer of the cortex are disorganized in the brains of autistic children.