The Discovery Files

Scientists seeking to improve cancer treatments have created a tiny drug transporter that maximizes its ability to silence damaging genes by finding the equivalent of an expressway into a target cell.

After a 10,000-year absence, wildfires have returned to the Arctic tundra, and a University of Florida study shows that their impact could extend far beyond the areas blackened by flames.

In her research, University of Chicago associate professor in psychology Sian Beilock, has shown the brain can work to sabotage performance, often in pressure-filled situations that deplete brain power critical to many everyday activities.

When African Grey parrots talk, do they mimic sounds or consciously understand their speech? Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at both Brandeis and Harvard universities believes African Greys actually know what they're talking about.

Japan's March 11, 2011 Tohoku Earthquake is among the strongest ever recorded, and because it struck one of the world's most heavily instrumented seismic zones, this natural disaster is providing scientists with a treasure trove of data on rare magnitude 9 earthquakes. Among the new information is what is believed to be the first study of how a shock this powerful affects the rock and soil beneath the surface.

An international consortium of scientists has produced a new map of the potato genome that may lead to the development of an ultra-nutritious potato that could help feed the world's hungry.

Obesity appears to impair normal muscle function in rats, an observation that could have significant implications for humans, according to Penn State researchers.

Want to convince someone to do something? A University of Michigan study examines how various speech characteristics influence people's decisions to participate in telephone surveys. But its findings have implications for many other situations, from closing sales to swaying voters to getting spouses to see things your way.

A growing body of research finds musical training gives students learning advantages in the classroom. Now a Northwestern University study finds musical training can benefit the grandparents, too, by offsetting some of the deleterious effects of aging.

Engineers investigating "listener fatigue"--the discomfort and pain some people experience while using in-ear headphones, hearing aids, and other devices that seal the ear canal from external sound--have found not only what they believe is the cause, but also a potential solution.

Using a new mapping strategy, a collaborative team led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and MIT has begun to assign meaning to the regions beyond our genes and has revealed how minute changes in these regions might be connected to common diseases.

Engineers at Ohio State University have invented a new kind of nano-particle that shines in different colors to tag molecules in biomedical tests.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and in Switzerland have developed a polymer-based material that can heal itself with the help of a widely used type of lighting. Imagine repairing unsightly scratches on your car or dining room table quickly, easily and inexpensively.

Michigan State University researchers show that more adaptable bacteria that are oriented toward long-term improvement prevailed over competitors that held short term advantages.

New evidence from the University of Michigan that biodiversity promotes water quality suggests that accelerating species losses may compromise future water quality.