News Scan Briefs: Killer Smile
Also: burning nitrogen, cancer clue in Down's syndrome, and gallons per mile
Stories by Katherine Harmon
Rare Genetic Mutation Lets Some People Function with Less Sleep
Ever wished you could get by with less sleep? Some people can--and don't seem to be any worse off for it--thanks, possibly, to one unusual mutation
Bizarre Planet Found to Orbit Backward
In the search for planets beyond our solar system, the UK's Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) has stumbled upon a bizarre-o world that is orbiting its star in reverse.
"I have to say this is one of the strangest planets we know about," Sara Seager, an astrophysicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told SPACE.com...
Shakeups at the FDA lead to an investigation and a resignation
Two leaders at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have recently found themselves in hot water at the agency. The director of drug approval has been named in an ethics investigation and a head medical device regulator has resigned...
Shooting stars: Peak of the Perseid meteor shower is underway
The next couple nights—between midnight and 5 A.M.—will be the best opportunities to crane your neck upward and check out the Perseid meteor shower.
Artful Science: Peering into Ancient Pigments
An improvement in microscopic dye analysis is allowing scholars to study the origins and histories of ancient, colorful art
Deaths from avoidable medical error more than double in past decade, investigation shows
Preventable medical mistakes and infections are responsible for about 200,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to an investigation by the Hearst media corporation.
Routine tests turn up avian flu in Minnesota turkeys
Thousands of turkeys in Minnesota have been quarantined after a strain of avian flu (H7N9) was found at a poultry farm there. Experts say that the strain is markedly less virulent than H5N1, the Asian strain that has caused more than 250 human deaths and millions of poultry deaths...
Honeybees face new threat in Texas: "Crazy" ants
Viruses, grueling journeys, monoculture diets. U.S. honeybees have had it rough lately, and millions have perished from the mysterious colony collapse disorder (CCD).
Scratch That Theory: Itchiness and Pain May Not Share the Same Sensory Pathway
What do itch and pain have in common? Maybe less than researchers previously thought. A team of scientists is learning more about the "itch gene" and how it works separately from pain pathways...
Aesop's fable not so fantastical: Rooks use rocks to raise floating food
As users—and even occasional makers—of tools, rooks in captivity have been documented bending wire and dropping rocks to access treats put just out of their reach by researchers...
Heart-Lung Machine May Not Be the Culprit in Post-Op "Pump Head" Syndrome
Bypass surgery patients who were on a heart-lung machine often find their brain function slipping for months or years afterward. A new study--and a simple lesson in the scientific method--points to cardiac disease itself as the underlying cause of "pump head"...
Spooky medicine: Drug companies hire ghostwriters to pen favorable journal articles
Pens and clipboards are so 1997. Attractive sales reps are so 2001. They might both still be commonplace, but pharmaceutical companies have also been sinking cash into a more obscured vehicle of persuasion: peer-reviewed medical journals...
HIV genome structure decoded
It might not be super high-res, but researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have described the first full structure of the HIV-1 genome.
Forensics for filched fossils
Dinosaur bones are going missing all over the country—presumably stolen from the field, labs and even museums. And filched fossils can bring in tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market...
Quiet year for twister research in Tornado Alley
The 100-plus researchers who set out earlier this year on the biggest scientific twister hunt in history have returned with few tornado tales to tell.
Drilling deep into an ocean fault
For the first time, researchers have been able to drill deep (more than 1,600 meters) into an ocean fault zone.
The expedition team, onboard the Japanese research ship Chikyu, is searching for answers in the depths of the Nankai Trough about why the previously active fault has locked up in the past several decades—and what type of activity might be likely in the near future...
Fungus Makes Zombie Ants Do All the Work
A tropical fungus has adapted to infect ants and force them to chomp, with surprising specificity, into perfectly located leaves before killing them and taking over their bodies
New fishing rules shown to help depleted stocks
The globe’s fisheries have taken a deep nose-dive in the past few decades. But a new paper, to be published in tomorrow’s Science , finds that improved management is finally beginning to pull some stocks back from the brink...
Snake oil or fish oil? Americans shelling out $33.9 billion a year on alternative health treatments
People in the U.S. spent $33.9 billion last year on alternative health goods and services, ranging from antioxidant supplements to yoga, according to a new study released today by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)...
