Generic heart drugs as good as brand-names

Generic heart medications work just as well as their brand-name counterparts, despite negative commentary on the no-name drugs in medical journals and mainstream media, a new analysis says. [More]

Dispatches from the bottom of the Earth: Bookshelf Science

Editor's note: Marine geophysicist Robin Bell is leading an expedition to Antarctica to explore a mysterious mountain range beneath the ice sheet. Following is the sixth of her updates on the effort as part of ScientificAmerican.com's in-depth report on the "Future of the Poles."

McMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- For a geologist, Antarctica can be a very frustrating continent.  Stepping off an aircraft onto the ice, one is greeted by a 12,000-foot smoking volcano on one side and a mountain range rising about 14,000 feet on the other.  This would appear to be a geologist's dream.  The problem is the ice. Only 1 percent  of the rock on the continent is free from the veil of ice.  The rest is hidden from prying scientists.  We are forced to rely on remote sensing techniques to tell us about the types of rocks beneath the ice sheet.  Our team uses radar, gravity and magnetics. Other scientists shoot off small explosives or release pressurized air to record the echoes from different layers of hidden rock. [More]

Exoplanet orbiting red giant gives hints of Earth's future

Astronomers have discovered a new planet in another solar system orbiting a red giant star that provides clues into what may happen to our own solar system 5 billion years from now when our own, younger Sun becomes a gigantic old star.  [More]

Free Internet for all? FCC to vote on plan wireless industry hates

Free, broadband Internet service could become available across the country if the government okays a proposal to open up unused public airwaves to bidders. [More]

PVC producer fined $12 million for environmental damage

The feds yesterday ordered a major U.S. producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin, a known cancer-causing agent, to pay $12 million in fines and to clean up its facilities after determining that it violated antipollution laws. [More]