Research News

Reconstruction of Deinocheirus mirificus.

Bigger Than A T. Rex, With A Duck's Bill, Huge Arms And A Hump

8:24pm October 22, 2014

by Christopher Joyce

Scientists first figured the claw-tipped, giant arm bones found in 1965 belonged to an ostrichlike dinosaur. But its recently recovered skull looks more like a dino designed by a committee — of kids.

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Science

Sunken U-Boats Off North Carolina Coast A Significant Find For Historians

6:28pm October 22, 2014

The North Carolina coast may be the last place you'd think to find a sunken German submarine from World War II. But that's what Joe Hoyt — a nautical archeologist — found on a recent expedition to the ocean floor. Robert Siegel talks to him about the underwater battle site there.

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Ebola Vaccine Could Start Testing In Africa By January

10:22am October 22, 2014

by Richard Harris

The World Health Organization says two vaccine candidates now undergoing small-scale tests of dosage and safety in people might be ready for broader deployment in Africa by early 2015.

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Avian influenza, or bird flu, causes an infectious and contagious respiratory disease. In the lab, several scientists have made the H5N1 strain more contagious, a controversial line of research.

U.S. To Temporarily Halt Funding For Controversial Virus Research

6:07pm October 17, 2014

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

The federal government will suspend funding while it reviews the potential risks and benefits of certain experiments with three viruses: SARS, MERS and influenza.

Isabella Beukes, of Santa Rosa, Calif., has been legally blind for more than 40 years. An experimental treatment derived from embryonic stem cells seems to have enabled her now to see not just color but also some shapes.

Embryonic Stem Cells Restore Vision In Preliminary Human Test

11:39am October 17, 2014

by Rob Stein

Cells derived from embryos appear to have improved vision in more than half of the 18 patients who had become legally blind because of two progressive, currently incurable eye diseases.

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Study Finds Human Stem Cells May Help To Treat Patients

6:37am October 15, 2014

by Rob Stein

For the first time, scientists are reporting that human embryonic stem cells may be helping treat patients — in one instance, the cells seem to been enabling some blind people to see better.

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Science

ProPublica Analyzes 3 Decades Of Deadly Police Shootings

9:54am October 14, 2014

Analysis shows young black males are at a higher risk of being shot dead by police than younger white males. Rachel Martin talks to Ryan Gabrielson, one of the lead reporters on ProPublica's story.

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And so continues Code Switch's battle with illustrating studies about the subtle biases that inflict our email outboxes.

What's In A Name? It Could Matter If You're Writing To Your Lawmaker

9:42am October 13, 2014

by Shankar Vedantam

To test subtle biases, researchers sent state legislators identical emails about voting requirements. Some emails came from a man with a "Latino" name, and others from an "Anglo" name.

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Speculation Abounds Over Who Will Win Economics Nobel

9:42am October 13, 2014

by Jim Zarroli

The top contenders for the Nobel Prize in economics are said to be a pair of NYU professors who study entrepreneurship, and a Stanford researcher who did pioneering work into economic sociology.

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French Economist Wins Nobel For Market Power And Regulation Research

9:42am October 13, 2014

by Jim Zarroli

French economist Jean Tirole, 61, works at the Toulouse School of Economics in France. The economics prize completed the 2014 Nobel Prize announcements.

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