US News | Science Discoveries

A team of researchers in Denmark, at the University of California, Davis, and at UC Berkeley have identified a group of plant proteins that "shut the door" on bacteria that would otherwise infect the plant's leaves. The findings provide a better understanding of plants' immune systems and will likely find application in better protecting crops and horticultural plants against diseases.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say you're more likely to scan a room, jumping from object to object as you search for something. In addition, the timing of these jumps appears to be determined by waves of activity in the brain that act as a clock.

University of Utah mathematicians have developed a brand new cloaking method that functions through wave cancellation and could someday shield submarines from sonar, planes from radar, buildings from earthquakes, and coastal structures from tsunamis. Most previous research used interior cloaking, where the cloaking device envelops the cloaked object. Researchers say this new method "is the first active, exterior cloaking" technique.

Stanford engineers and others have created a structural design that lets buildings rock during earthquakes, then correct themselves when the shaking stops, confining damage to replaceable steel "fuses."

A Northwestern University study is the first of its kind and demostrates that having musical training can help a listener distinguish between background noise and sound that the listener is meant to hear.

Oregon State University researchers are pioneering the concept of "rich interaction" -- computers that do, in fact, want to communicate with, learn from, and get to know you better as a person.

University of Illinois researchers report that they have assembled a new cancer drug delivery system that, in a cell culture, is able kill tumor cells and spare healthy cells.

An international team of researchers deduced that early modern humans living on the coast of the southern tip of Africa used fire to increase the quality and the effectiveness of their stone tools.

Scientists found that highly managed fisheries caused 10 large troubled fish stocks to grow over the course of the study.

Researchers found that students with high memory storage capacities are better able to ignore distractions and stay focused on their assigned tasks.