Diabetes double
The diabetes drug metformin may help control lung cancer. In a study of 157 people with lung cancer and diabetes, the cancer had spread in 20 per cent of those who had taken the drug compared with 42 per cent of those who had not. The findings were reported this week at a meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Vancouver, Canada.
Humanoids in space
Advertisement
By the time you read this, Robonaut 2 should be hurtling through space.NASA鈥檚 space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to start its final journey 鈥� an 11-day mission to the International Space Station 鈥� on Wednesday, with R2 on board. NASA鈥檚 first humanoid astronaut has a head, torso and highly dextrous arms and hands for manipulating tools.
Elephant smuggling
Police in India have arrested five people allegedly involved in a transnational gang responsible for smuggling nearly 100 elephants over the past five years. Elephants are kept as status symbols in some parts of the country and can reportedly fetch up to 拢50,000.
Virgin birth snakes
A female boa constrictor in the US has produced 22 offspring through parthenogenesis, or reproduction without sex. Born in two litters in 2009 and earlier this year, they are among the first parthenogenetic vertebrates to have made it to adulthood (Biology Letters, ).
Liberal DNA
A gene linked with sociality and novelty-seeking may make people more liberal in outlook, but only if they have plenty of friends during adolescence. The gene, DRD4-7R, makes a dopamine receptor and was identified from DNA samples and a survey of 2574 adolescents (The Journal of Politics, ).