Science News back issues from May 1993:
Fossils show early diversity of life. (Archean-era cyanobacteria fossils)
May 01, 1993; ... The record of ancient life preserved in Earth's oldest rocks shrinks to a handful of tattered pages as paleontologists struggle back through time to the Archean era the first 2 billion years of our planet's history, Now, recently identified fossil microorganisms add a potentially important ...
Starting up an improved atomic clock. (National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) installs more accurate atomic clock) (Brief Article)
May 01, 1993 ... It doesn't look at all like the trusty digital have at your bedside, but it certainly keeps better time. Placed into operation on April 22 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colo., this new atomic clock will neither gain nor lose a second in the ...
Housecleaning cells may become assassins. (Kupffer cells)
May 01, 1993; ... Four years ago, scientists reported that in rats, large doses of vitamin A transform minimally toxic doses of carbon tetrachloride into a potent liver poison. Because the vitamin by itself exhibited no adverse liver effects, the researchers began investigating to find the agent behind ...
Pediatric exam foreshadows vision problems. (research on myopia)
May 01, 1993; ...Eye doctors may soon be able to predict an infant's risk of developing nearsightedness later in life, thanks to the unexpected results of a long-term study of visual development. The study raises the hope that an eye exam soon after birth will enable ophthalmologists to prevent myopia and ...
Kinship ties influence behavior, morphology. (study by researchers David W. Pfenig and James P. Collins)
May 01, 1993; ... Scientists often talk about animals recognizing and consequently helping their kin. Such aid benefits the helper by promoting the spread of genes the relatives have in common. Two new reports show how organisms practice this concept, known as inclusive fitness, sometimes carrying it to ...
Dyslexia risk linked to summer births. (researchers think a mother's exposure to viruses during winter months may cause child to develop dyslexia)
May 01, 1993; ... A new study suggests that children born in summer months stand the greatest chance of developing dyslexia, a reading disorder that may afflict up to 9 percent of children in the United States. This seasonal pattern may result from the exposure of women in the second trimester of ...
Interference of light scattered by two ions. (research on polarized light patterns)
May 01, 1993; ... English physicist Thomas Young was the first to demonstrate convincingly that light behaves like a wave. In his famous 1801 experiment, he allowed light to pass through a pair of closely spaced pinholes onto a screen. Each pinhole caused the light to fan out into a wide beam. Where the two ...
Unusual tubes emerge from boron nitride. (chemists discover that boron nitride can be formed into microscopic tubes)
May 01, 1993; ... Chemists seeking an alternative method for making boron nitride - a substance used to create hard, diamond-like materials, face powders, and fibers for composite materials - have discovered a new form of the material: microscopic tubes. "At this point, I think the tubular form ...
Mix and match computing. (alternatives to supercomputers) (Cover Story)
May 01, 1993; ... "So many galaxies ... so little time." Astrophysicist Margaret J. Geller's lament could just as easily have come from other researchers similarly mired in mountains of data. just replace "galaxies" with such terms as genes, subatomic particles, polymer configurations, ozone ...
Delinquent developments. (research study on juvenile delinquents)
May 01, 1993; ... Dunedin lies at the southern end of New Zealand, nearly half a world and a far cry from the gritty, sometimes grim realities of life for youngsters growing up in many U.S. cities. Yet a group of more than 1,000 boys and girls born in Dunedin 21 years ago now offers behavioral researchers ...
Jawing with an ancient ape. (researchers think fossil of Kenyapithecus africanus found on Maboko Island in Kenya may be close relative to modern apes and humans) (Brief Article)
May 01, 1993; ... A fossil jaw found on Maboko Island in western Kenya suggests that an ape-like creature that lived between 14 million and 16 million years ago was a close relative of the as-yet-unidentified common ancestor of modern apes and humans, according to the specimens discoverers. Monte ...
An ancestor's unusual shape. (research on the Singa skull found in 1924 indicates that it is an archaic ancestor to modern humans) (Brief Article)
May 01, 1993; ... In 1924, anthropologists working at the Sudanese site of Singa found the upper portion of a skull embedded in rock along the Nile River. Some investigators consider the Singa skull an example of an anatomically modern human ancestral to Khoisan hunter-gatherers still living in Africa ....
Physics in storage rings ... with stripped atoms ... with negative ions. (Brief Article)
May 01, 1993; ... Strip all but one of the 92 electrons from a uranium atom and the result is a highly charged positive ion. Add an electron to a calcium atom and the result is a negative ion that barely holds on to its extra electron. Neither type of charged particle lasts long enough to be Studied in ...
Cancer team targets colorectal gene. (hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer)
May 08, 1993; ... An international team of scientists has discovered the underlying genetic basis for a common type of colorectal cancer. Their findings, along with those of another group, may provide new hope for people whose family tree is riddled with such cancers. The researchers have homed ...
Defying predictions, El Nino still simmers. (El Nino Pacific Ocean warming)
May 08, 1993; ... The current El Nino warming in the Pacific Ocean has surprised most human forecasters and computer models by hanging on far longer than predicted, promising continued disruptions in the typical weather patterns for many parts of the planet, according to researchers from the National ...
Peering into Orion nebula's stellar nursery. (Herbig-Haro objects observed near IRc2 star) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... Astronomers have viewed with greater clarity than ever before a dust-cloaked region of starbirth in the Milky Way, The violent interactions they recorded there may shed new light on luminous knots of gas, known as Herbig-Haro objects, whose origin has been controversial ever since they ...
New superconductor record. (new superconductor effective at 133 kelvins) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993 ... After a five-year lull with no reports of a material that could superconduct at temperatures above 127 kelvins, researchers have finally found a record breaker. The new superconductor appears to offer no resistance to electrons at 133 kelvins, a group at the Laboratorium fur ...
New method may speed gene searches. (genomic mismatch scanning)
May 08, 1993; ... To geneticists, the final frontier lies literally at our fingertips -- and elsewhere in the body.. Each of our cells holds a vast storehouse of genetic information in some 100,000 genes strung out along 46 chromosomes. Collectively this material forms the human genome. Using DNA ...
Exxon's Valdez studies ignite controversy. (Exxon Corp. Exxon Company U.S.A.'s research on environmental impact of 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill)
May 08, 1993; ... Alaska's Prince William Sound "has almost fully recovered from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill:' assert officials with the Houston-based Exxon Co. USA. That assessment, based on a spate of new papers by company-funded researchers, provoked an immediate flurry of heated charges and ...
Close-up views of cells. (optical microscope magnifies cell components as small as 15 nanometers across)
May 08, 1993 ... Over the centuries, microscopists have developed many different techniques for staining biological material to highlight certain features of interest in tissue or within individual cells. The same techniques may now prove useful with a new type of optical microscope that produces sharp ...
Collapsing clusters lead to fullerenes. (fullerene formation) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... Chemists have quite successfully cooked up large quantities of fullerenes for three years now, but no one yet knows how these structures manage to emerge out of the hot carbon chaos. Why the commonly used arc-reactor-synthesis method works at all still mystifies researchers. How could ...
Looking for lumps: seeking the seeds of structure in the early universe. (cosmic microwave background temperature variations studied)(part 1) (Cover Story)
May 08, 1993; ... With an earsplitting rush, gas from a truckload of helium cylinders breathes life into a giant, deflated balloon. Billowing to more than 10 stories high and endowed with 10,000 pounds of lift, this lighter-than-air craft will carry a special payload: a hightech collage of instruments that ...
Foods that fool the body with low fat. (people can judge fat content of milk-based and oil-fried foods) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... Nutritionists and food companies may have more success promoting healthy diets if they concentrate on reducing fat in specific foods. Unfortunately, ice cream isn't one of them. People can judge the fat content of milk-based products much more easily than the fat in mixed foods, ...
Alzheimer's disease: does the nose know? (loss in sense of smell may detect Alzheimer's disease and track its progression) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... An insidious disease, Alzheimer's can start to develop long before one can detect troublesome losses in cognitive function. However, people with this disease also lose some of their sense of smell. Researchers hope that monitoring changes in this sense will help them detect the disease ...
There's no accounting for taste. (some animals prefer bitter flavors) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... Countless studies have indicated that animals avoid bitter foods. But some actually prefer acrid flavors, reports John I. Glendinning of the University of Arizona in Tucson. While Glendinning was at Florida State University in Tallahassee, he studied the eating habits of two ...
How sweet a protein can be. (recently isolated amino acid protein, brazzein, provides 2,000 times the sweetness of sugar) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... A reddish fruit sold in Nigerian markets has provided scientists with yet another supersweet protein. Ounce per ounce, this 52-amino-acid protein, called brazzein, provides 2,000 times the sweetness of sugar, reports Ding Ming, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He and ...
Nocturnal risks for the eyes. (people who take medication for high blood pressure just before bed may precipitate sudden or gradual loss of vision) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... For people with certain eye disorders who are also hypertensive, taking high blood pressure medication shortly before bedtime may cause a sudden loss of eyesight or accelerate a more gradual process of vision loss, reports ophthalmologist Sohan Singh Hayreh of the University of Iowa in ...
Herpes gets in your eyes. (Herpes simplex type I infection can scar cornea if it gets into the eye) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993; ... 2 Herpes simplex type I, the virus that causes cold sores around the lips, canprove nasty if it gets into the eyes. While cold sores are common, only a small proportion of those who get them ever develop the eye infection. Sequestered in nerve cells, the virus ...
Beached Valdez oil fled in floc. (oil-sediment flocculation emulsified much of oil from 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill)
May 08, 1993 ... Shortly after the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident dumped 10.8 million gallons of North Slope crude into Alaska's Prince William Sound, storms, tides, and work crews began washing the beached petroleum into the sea (SN: 2/13/93, p. 102). When little of this oil showed up in tidal or sea ...
Brain goals for the 1990s. (Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives identifies research goals to attain by 2000) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993 ... Some sociologists have depicted scientists as a tribe with their own cultural practices, myths, and rituals. And members of this particular tribe aren't in the habit of proclaiming the specific mysteries of nature they intend to solve and then issuing a delivery date. But that's just what ...
Clinton to sign Earth pact. (Pres Bill Clinton to sign United Nation's biodiversity treaty) (Brief Article)
May 08, 1993 ... In an address commemorating Earth Day, President Bill Clinton pledged to sign the United Nations convention popularly known as the biodiversity treaty, In the April 21 speech, he also promised to reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. At last ...
Gender paths wind toward self-esteem. (gender differences in self-esteem development)
May 15, 1993; ... A study tracking self-esteem and psychological adjustment in youngsters from the early teens to young adulthood finds that a healthy regard for oneself develops differently in boys and girls. What's more, reported feelings of self-worth do not necessarily reflect psychological ...
Researchers bid for big-science biodiversity. (systematist groups urge classification of all plant and animal species)
May 15, 1993; ... Now that politicians rank biodiversity high on the world's list of environmental priorities, scientists intimately involved with identifying Earth's plants and animals are calling for a sixfold increase in funding for their work. This week, three groups representing these ...
Gene finding gives clues to DNA repair. (defective DNA-repair genes that cause xeroderma pigmentosum identified)
May 15, 1993; ... In the mid-1960s, as a postdoctoral student, James E. Cleaver thought a lot about the genetics of radiation sensitivity in cells. One day, he read a newspaper report about xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a rare disease that renders people ultrasensitive to sunlight. Are people with XP, ...
Hazard from Soviet nuclear dumps assessed. (dumping into Barents and Kara Seas)
May 15, 1993; ... In the wake of recent revelations concerning the Soviet Union's dumping of nuclear reactors and radioactive waste into the ocean, Russian scientists met last week in Anchorage with experts from several Arctic nations to detail the history of disposal and discuss plans to assess the hazard ....
Feds reluctantly accept Delaney ruling. (Agricultural Department, Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency will no longer grant pesticide-use exemptions that violate 1958 amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act) (Brief Article)
May 15, 1993; ... Last year, a federal court revoked the Environmental Protection Agency's interpretation of the nation's food-additives law -- one involving acceptable amounts of known animal carcinogens in processed foods. On May 7, the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration, and EPA ...
Food, drug, or poison? (toxic plants used by tribal cultures as food or medicine) (Cover Story)
May 15, 1993; ... Beautiful lily, in bloom this morning, guard me. Drive away sorcery. Make me grow old. Let me reach the age at which I have to take up a walking stick. I thank thee for exhaling thy fragrance there, where thou art standing. A Mexican Indian healer chants this prayer to ...
Whipping up atomic crystals bound by light. (a new state of matter)
May 15, 1993; ... Chill atoms to microkelvin temperatures, then trap them in the diaphanous folds of an undulating blanket of light created by overlapping laser beams. This recipe for an optical crystal sounds simple, but preparing such a novel concoction requires considerable care. The result is a new ...
Material peptide: a piece of protein yeast becomes a building block for scientists. (new peptide discovered)
May 15, 1993; ... A piece of yeast protein becomes a building block for scientists Four years ago, Shuguang Zhang was a typical molecular biologist. Questions about the replication of genetic material occupied most of his waking hours and all of his lab work at the Massachusetts Institute of ...
Shedding more light on gamma-ray bursts. (Astronomy)
May 15, 1993 ... Spitting out a torrent of radiation and then vanishing without a trace, gamma-ray bursts are among the most mysterious phenomena known in the universe. New findings from the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), launched in 1991, may eventually help settle a debate about the origin of ...
First all-composite auto bridge planned. (450-foot bridge to span Interstate 5 in San Diego, California) (Brief Article)
May 15, 1993 ... Is crumbling infrastructure getting you down? Does defense-industry downsizing cramp your style? Tired of traffic gridlock? A consortium of businesses, defense contractors, and academics is addressing these concerns with one grand idea: a new auto bridge built of advanced composite ...
Easy-to-make, heat-resistant composite. (new boron nitrate composite has double oxidative deterioration threshold of carbon-carbon composite) (Brief Article)
May 15, 1993 ... To make brake pads for jumbo jets, nose cones for rockets, and other parts that must withstand harsh conditions, manufacturers typically rely on strong, lightweight, heat-resistant carbon composites. But scientists have found a sturdier alternative, according to a report presented last ...
Organic polymer tested as optical link. (organic polymers used to convert cable television information into laser beam for transmission through optical fibers) (Brief Article)
May 15, 1993 ... Models of "information superhighways" use inorganic crystals to convert electric signals to light. Organic polymers, however, promise to be easier to integrate into a high-speed communications network, as well as mechanically tougher and less expensive than crystals (SN: 8/3/91, p.77). ...
Cancer cells caught in the (metastatic) act. (video images of cancer cells in blood vessels)
May 22, 1993; ... Despite thorough surgical excisions and ever more sophisticated radiation and drug treatments, some cancer cells manage to get away from physicians trying to destroy them. Tumor cells that escape capture or destruction can spread to other parts of the body and start cancer anew. ...
Young scientists honored for research. (44th Annual Science and Engineering Fair) (Brief Article)
May 22, 1993; ... Legions of high school science enthusiasts converged on Mississippi Beach, Miss., last week for the 44th International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The May 9 to 15 event attracted 831 students, who brought with them projects previously exhibited in ISEF-affiliated fairs held in 46 ...
Red laser light gets an electric charge. (new semiconductor laser could be used in optical information processing) (Brief Article)
May 22, 1993; ... Lasers - devices that produce intense monochromatic beams of electromagnetic radiation - are rapidly lighting the way to advances in communications technologies. Now, laser-based systems for storing, presenting, and moving data may benefit from a new semiconductor laser with potential ...
Testing theory by computing quark behavior. (quantum chromodynamics) (Brief Article)
May 22, 1993; ... It took nearly a year to do the calculations, but when the computer finally disgorged the numbers, physicists had for the first time extracted from theory predictions of the ratios of the masses of eight subatomic particles. These computed, theoretically derived ratios differ from ...
Revisionists' view of solar system environs. (gas-free void could have been created by several supernova explosions or strong stellar wind)
May 22, 1993; ... Astronomers are zeroing in on the nature of the gaseous environment in which the sun and nearby stars make their home. In addition to precisely measuring such properties as the distribution of gas in and around the solar system, a trio of new studies provide supporting evidence that the ...
Middle Eastern hominids keep an early date. (study suggests that Neanderthals and modern humans lived at the same time in Middle East) (Brief Article)
May 22, 1993; ... Age estimates based on a new analysis of fossil teeth found in three Israeli caves confirm reports that Neandertals and anatomically modern humans lived virtually side by side in the Middle East around 100,000 years ago, a team of scientists asserts in the May 20 NATURE. The ...
Vitamin E appears to cut heart disease risk.
May 22, 1993; ... Daily consumption of vitamin E supplements appears to dramatically cut heart disease risk in middle-aged men and women, according to two large, ongoing studies of U.S. health professionals reported this week. Biologically damaging oxidative reactions can foster degenerative ...
Nitric oxide flaw found in hypertension.
May 22, 1993; ... Some cases of high blood pressure may be caused by a shortage of nitric oxide, a gas once thought to be toxic but now known to play a fundamental role in a variety of normal bodily functions. This is the first time that a defect in the way cells handle nitric oxide has been linked to ...
Cosmological controversy: inflation, texture, and waves: competing theories about how the universe got its lumps.
May 22, 1993; ... Competing theories about how the universe got its lumps Second of two articles "The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing-wax -- Of cabbages - and kings -- And why the sea is boiling hot -- And whether pigs ...
Cotton, fleece, and beads. (materials for cleaning up oil spills) (Cover Story)
May 22, 1993; ... There's no shortage of products to remove oil spills from water. "But there surely aren't any magic bullets out there," notes Daniel F. Sheehan, who chairs the federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research and directs the Coast Guard's National Pollution Funds ...
A closer view of our galaxy's center. (infrared images of Milky Way core) (Brief Article)
May 22, 1993 ... By combining high resolution and high sensitivity, astronomers have produced the most revealing infrared images ever made of our galaxy's star-packed core. Using the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope in La Serena, Chile, German researchers imaged about 340 bright ...
An illuminating look at the full moon. (coherent backscattering rather than shadow hiding accounts for disproportionate full moon brightening) (Brief Article)
May 22, 1993 ... Just as the full moon makes its monthly debut, the brightness of the lunar surface rises dramatically, far exceeding the luminosity of four quarter moons. For more than a century, astronomers have attributed this surge to a phenomenon known as shadow hiding, in which particles the size of ...
Hazardous incinerators? (waste treatment facilities linked to health problems)
May 22, 1993 ... Each year, 184 incinerators in the United States destroy millions of tons of hazardous materials. Many communities have expressed concerns about the health risks those facilities might pose. Now, epidemiologic studies add weight to those concerns by linking respiratory and neurologic ...
Patch clamp probes malaria parasite ... and peptides eliminate parasite hideouts. (malaria parasite research) (Brief Article)
May 22, 1993 ... During a malarial infection, parasites transmitted by the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes invade red blood cells, where they multiply and then burst forth to infect even more cells. As the parasite enters a red blood cell it forms a membrane through which it draws nutrients from the cell's ...
AIDS protection for vaginal sex? (HIV vaccine research)
May 29, 1993; ... For the first time, a vaccine appears to protect monkeys from vaginal transmission of a virus that closely resembles HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a team of investigators reported this week. They hope that such studies will lead to the development of human vaccines that will prevent ...
Flu virus shows spring-loaded mechanism. (mechanism within outer virus membrane explains how influenza virus brings out peptides that start membrane fusion) (Brief Article)
May 29, 1993; ... Viruses have evolved complex and cunning methods of infecting their preferred hosts. Now, researchers believe they have discovered a twist in viral cleverness -- a spring-loaded mechanism within the protective outer membrane of the influenza virus. This mechanism apparently helps the ...
Twist of orange, lavender oil stop cancer. (research of substances for preventing precancerous cells from becoming cancerous)
May 29, 1993; ... A compound in the fragrant oil found in orange peels has now joined a growing list of substances under study for their ability to stop cancer before it starts. Called limonene, the ringed, 10-carbon orange oil compound can reduce and prevent human breast cancer tumors in mice, ...
Forwarding information via controlled chaos. (control of circuit's chaotic output used to transmit encoded or digital information) (Brief Article)
May 29, 1993; ... By repeatedly pressing a key to complete an electrical circuit, a telegraph operator can generate a string of electrical pulses to convey a message. But that's not the only way to transmit encoded or digital information. Researchers have now proposed an alternative strategy that involves ...
Midcontinent heat may explain great quakes. (New Madrid Fault earthquakes, Missouri, 1811-1812)
May 29, 1993; ... While most North Americans think of California as "The Earthquake State," three of the largest tremors in U.S. history struck the nation's heartland near New Madrid, Mo., during the winter of 1811-1812. Why such massive jolts should rock the continent's otherwise stable center has long ...
Mysterious radio bursts hint at heliopause. (intense radio wave bursts detected by Voyager 1 and 2)
May 29, 1993; ... Hurtling through space a few billion kilometers beyond Neptune and Pluto, two aging spacecraft have recorded intense bursts of radio waves that may originate from the very edge of the solar system. If verified by further analysis, the bursts will provide a new way to gauge the size of the ...
Chlorination products linked to cancer. (study indicates that by-products of chlorine's reaction with water contaminants may be agents responsible for link between chlorinated drinking water and cancer) (Brief Article)
May 29, 1993; ... A report published last summer offered the first strong link between chlorinated drinking water and an increased risk of human bladder and rectal cancers. But this epidemiologic study could not tease out the agent responsible -- chlorine, by-products of the disinfectant's reaction with ...
Method probes chemistry of stroke, aging. (near-infrared spectrophotometry)
May 29, 1993; ... A technique used to measure fats and proteins in food products may now help scientists detect chemical changes in the brain that occur with stroke and aging, a group of researchers reports. Robert A. Lodder and his co-workers at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in ...