Joe Palca archive

November 16, 2009 Where does all that dust under your couch come from? It turns out that most household dust comes from outside — and may contain some pretty harmful stuff. How the toxins in dust get into your body depends on the size of the dust particle.

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November 12, 2009 The space agency announced plans for freeing the rover Spirit, which has been stuck in a Martian sand trap since April. Spirit has six wheels, though one, being inspected here by the rover's robotic arm, stopped working in 2006. NASA engineers will begin transmitting commands to the robot's five working wheels on Monday, but escape efforts could last into early next year.

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November 5, 2009 French scientists report that two boys treated with gene therapy for a rare but fatal genetic disease have shown improvements. These results mark a high point for the field of gene therapy. Shown here, the area of the brain that was treated.

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October 27, 2009 A study shows the effect of what happens when genes from bioengineered plants get lose. A gene that protects a squash from a viral disease also protects a wild gourd from this disease but it makes it more susceptible to other threats.

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April 14, 2009 Warming global temperatures could cause massive tree die-offs. That's the gloomy conclusion of a new study by scientists at the University of Arizona. They've discovered that trees exposed to temperatures warmer than those in their native environment were less capable of tolerating drought.

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April 10, 2009 The world's largest prime number clocks in at nearly 13 million digits. It's a type of number called a Mersenne, and mathematicians are using the Internet to outsource the computing power to find them, number-crunching away to find one that's even larger.

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April 6, 2009 In the quest for a more environmentally friendly battery, MIT scientists have turned to biology. They've incorporated a genetically engineered virus into the structure of a lithium battery, allowing for a less toxic manufacturing process.

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April 2, 2009 Scientists say the heart, long thought to be the least regenerative organ in the body, can grow new heart muscle cells. Fallout from atomic tests led to this new finding.

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March 23, 2009 A half-dozen states started their own embryonic stem cell research programs after former President Bush imposed restrictions on federal dollars. But now that President Obama has lifted the restrictions, some states are questioning those costly programs, especially since state funds are scarce.

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March 10, 2009 Here's a radical concept: Our genes could determine which infectious diseases we are susceptible to. Some scientists say this could explain why some people infected with a microbe develop the disease and others show no symptoms.

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February 23, 2009 Suspension bridges are an ancient but elegant technology. They're built to last, and some, like the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, are more than 100 years old. But none of them will last forever, so engineers are testing a system of sensors that will sound the alarm if a cable nears failure.

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