Science News back issues from July 1995:
Eruptions spark explosions of life. (how volcanoes helped life develop)
Jul 01, 1995; ... Despite their reputation as deadly scourges, giant volcanic eruptions may have profoundly benefited life on Earth by triggering two of the greatest biological revolutions in the planet's history.Massive outpourings of lava, particularly those in the deep ocean, spurred bursts of ...
Viewing frost heave on a microscopic scale.
Jul 01, 1995; ... In cold climates, spring often brings city streets strewn with potholes, highway surfaces punctuated by unexpected bumps, fields overgrown with freshly exposed boulders, and soils that feel spongy and soft.These effects all result from a common phenomenon known as frost heave. It ...
Heart-y risks from breathing fine dust. (how carbon monoxide and dust particles could affect heart disease)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... Nearly 1,200 hospitalizations for heart disease in the Detroit area each year may trace to fine, dust-sized particles in the air--and perhaps to carbon monoxide, a new study suggests. If the associations hold up, any national tally of heart disease emergencies fostered by these pollutants ...
Egyptian fossils illuminate primate roots. (discovery of Catopithecus remains)(Brief Article) (Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... Egyptian fossils illuminate primate rootsNew fossil finds in Egypt provide an unusually clear glimpse of a creature that now ranks as the earliest firmly established simian species, an evolutionary forerunner of monkeys, apes, and humans. The tiny primate, which weighed only a few ...
Blood pressure lower for working women.(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... When women began to make inroads into the managerial and professional ranks in the mid-1960s, conventional wisdom held that career success would bring with it a host of work-related health problems. Job stress, it maintained, would leave women as ravaged by high blood pressure and heart ...
Early earth may have had two key RNA bases. (pyrimidine bases of cytosine and uracil may have been created in tidal pools)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... At some time more than 3 billion years ago, nucleic acids formed in the primordial soup that simmered on primitive Earth. These large molecules, notably RNA and DNA, evolved into the genetic basis of life.But that prompts the question, What sequence of reactions triggered the ...
Seals: the love 'em and leave 'em type? (sexual behavior of seals)(Brief Article) (Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... Seals may not deserve their reputation as purely polygynists, a new study suggests. Far from showing no interest in long-term relationships, many seals will in fact return to a tried and true partner.In addition, researchers had thought that female seals prefer dominant males, ...
Detecting gas clouds in cosmic voids. (hydrogen clouds between galaxies)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... Empty space isn't so empty after all. Astronomers have detected clouds of hydrogen gas in what were thought to be giant voids, hundreds of light-years across, between clusters of galaxies.The hydrogen clouds may represent the outer, gaseous halos of galaxies too faint to show up ...
New spin on galaxy formation. (rotation of gas clouds)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... In studying distant gas clouds that may rank among the universe's earliest examples of galaxies in the making, astronomers have uncovered a puzzling property. Observed as they appeared when the cosmos was only 20 percent of its current age, these gaseous objects seem to rotate about twice as ...
Probing the members of globular clusters. (cataclysmic variables in star clusters)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... When a white dwarf, a type of compact star, pulls matter from a close stellar companion, periodic fireworks can result. Over the years, astronomers have found a multitude of these pairs of mercurial stars, known as cataclysmic variables. Now, scientists have for the first time obtained ...
A star with jets? (release of hot gas from the Beta Lyrae star)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... Beta Lyrae ranks as one of the most widely studied stars in the heavens. Historical observations of this binary system, which consists of one star that donates mass to a disk of material encircling a companion, date to 1785. Now, a shuttleborne telescope has given astronomers their first ...
Beyond the top: now that physicists have found the top quark, what's next?(Cover Story)
Jul 01, 1995; ... The excitement has died down. The clamor has subsided. The top quark is finally in the bag.But for more than 850 physicists working at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Ill., the pursuit goes on. Protons still smash into antiprotons at the Tevatron ...
Bisexual bugs: added DNA changes fruit fly behavior, stirs up controversy.
Jul 01, 1995; ... Andy Warhol once said that everyone would enjoy 15 minutes of fame, but even he could not have predicted the notoriety surrounding some fruit flies now frolicking in a laboratory on the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Md. These Drosophila melanogaster bask in Warholian ...
Probing the cause of after-baby blues. (changes in cortisol hormone levels)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... All too often, the joy of bringing a new life into the world is soon spoiled by a maternal melancholy that lingers for days or even weeks. Known as postpartum depression, these blues burden an estimated 70 percent of women in varying degrees; a few even experience psychosis.Until ...
Treating old age with testosterone. (Brief Article)
Jul 01, 1995; ... Unlike the hormone estrogen, which plummets in women after menopause, the hormone testosterone does not dramatically decrease in men as they age. That's why no one has examined whether older men might benefit from takingtestosterone regularly, says Frederick M. Ellyin of the ...
Brain data fuel alcoholism gene clash. (new study on a gene that may help suppress dopamine transmission)
Jul 08, 1995; ... Alcoholics fall into two groups, depending on whether their brains exhibit a dramatically lower or slightly elevated flow of dopamine, a chemical that helps regulate pleasurable emotions during eating, drinking, and sex, a new study finds. Controversial studies suggesting that a substantial ...
DNA repair enzyme: a structure revealed. (study on the structure of photolayse, which repairs DNA damage caused by ultraviolet light)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995; ... Like any complex machine, DNA has a tendency to break down--particularly under the onslaught of ultraviolet light.Energetic UV rays from the sun create subtle glitches in the fragile genetic material present in every living cell. Left uncorrected, these glitches can eventually lead ...
Slowing down the evolution of tough insects. (researchers developing corn genetically engineered to produce Bacillus thuringiensis protein, which kills the corn borer insect)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995; ... Corn lovers usually have distinct preferences: Some like sweet, white ears, others plump, yellow ones. The corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) has a preference, too--for taller, more mature plants.Scientists want to take advantage of the corn borer's choosiness to slow the pace at ...
Spinning nuclei to extreme deformity. (researcher Demetrios G. Sarantites and colleagues discover hyperdeformation in gadolinium-147 nuclei)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995; ... The atomic nucleus is typically pictured as a roughly spherical conglomeration of protons and neutrons. But in recent years, researchers have discovered that certain nuclei adopt an elongated, superdeformed shape when they spin rapidly (SN: 7/28/90, p.53).Now, Demetrios G ....
Microscopic diamonds crack geologic mold. (diamonds found in continental crust challenge geological theory)
Jul 08, 1995; ... Tiny diamond grains, discovered in rocks from southwestern Norway, are forcing geologists to rethink cherished ideas about Earth's continents."This is a spectacular discovery. This is a wake-up call," comments geologist Stephen E. Haggerty, a diamond expert at the University of ...
Carbide whiskers shrink to nanometer size. (researchers have developed silicon carbide filaments under 30 nanometers in diameter)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995; ... The tiny fibers of silicon carbide used to strengthen airplane wings and mountain bike frames just became a lot tinier. Researchers have created silicon carbide rods less than 30 nanometers in diameter, about one-thousandth the size of those used in high-performance materials today. ...
Diet, exercise, genes strengthen bones. (study suggests that development of strong bones through exercise and diet depends on type of vitamin D receptor genes possessed by cells)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995; ... Study after study these days touts the benefits of eating right andexercising. But the value of that advice may depend on your geneticinheritance.A study of a gene associated with the development of strong bones indicates that the importance of exercising and ...
Gene for early, aggressive Alzheimer's. (researchers discover mutations of S182 gene responsible for rare but severe form of Alzheimer's occuring infamilies before victims reach age of 60)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995; ... An international team of scientists has discovered a gene for a rare, but very aggressive form of inherited Alzheimer's disease. The gene may be responsible for the majority of familial cases of Alzheimer's that strike before the age of 60.Alzheimer's usually sets in after age 65, ...
Tissue engineering: replacing damaged organs with new tissues.
Jul 08, 1995; ... In a housing project on the outskirts of Chicago, a three-alarm fire erupts. Engines rush in, and firefighters valiantly pull a woman and her 6-year-old twin sons from the burning building. One of the boys hasthird-degree burns over a large part of his body. His condition is ...
The Ediacaran enigma: were the oldest animals actually lichens?(includes a related article on the disappearance of Ediacara)(Cover Story)
Jul 08, 1995; ... They are the black holes of paleontology, fossils so inscrutable they swallow up every theory thrown at them.Taking their name from a site in southern Australia called Ediacara, these 565-million-year-old puzzles hold a pivotal position in evolutionary history. After billions of ...
Internal compass guides sea turtles. (research of how loggerhead sea turtles use internal magnetic compass as a directional aid)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995 ... When loggerhead sea turtles emerge from their shells on the beaches of Florida's east coast, the tiny hatchlings dive into the surf and swim quickly eastward toward the Gulf Stream to avoid coastal predators. Funneled into the North Atlantic gyre, a clockwise circular current, they remain at ...
Fishing out magnetoreception's secrets. (researchers are trying to decipher the magnetoreception of animals by studying rainbow trout)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995 ... Turtles are not the only animals that can read magnetic fields. Fish, birds, and bees can too, and researchers are struggling to work out the details of this unusual sense they call magnetoreception.The rainbow trout, for instance, has a nerve that can be triggered by the ...
Reproductive history and BRCA1. (studies show that women have a higher chance of having ovarian or breast cancer if they carry the mutant BRCA1 gene and and experience early menstruation and postponed first childbirth)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995 ... Women who carry the recently identified mutant BRCA1 gene face an 85 percent chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer sometime during their lives. As alarming as those odds sound, a new study adds to the misery: German researchers have found that early onset of menstruation and ...
Smoking and colon cancer. (research shows that smokers who either have the normal p53 gene or lack it altogether have a higher chance of developing colon cancer than nonsmokers)(Brief Article)
Jul 08, 1995 ... Studies designed to find out whether smoking increases the incidence of colon cancer have yielded equivocal results, at best. Now, using the knowledge that mutations in the p53 gene result in almost 50 percent of all colon cancers, researchers may have untangled smoking's role in certain ...
Physic's 'Holy Grail' finally captured.(condensed matter breakthrough)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... A team of physicists in Colorado has done something really cool.The scientists chilled rubidium-87 atoms to a temperature of 170 nanokelvins, then watched them coalesce into a Bose-Einstein condensate--a state of matter predicted over 70 years ago but never observed until now. ...
Brain scans hint why elderly forget faces.(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... As we age, phone numbers elude us, details of that unforgettable summer dim, and new faces don't leave a lasting imprint. Researchers aren't sure whether this age-related forgetfulness results from difficulty in creating memories, retrieving them, or both.Now, a study examining ...
Beta Pictoris: young, not middle aged?(star)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... Observations over the past decade show that dusty disks are a dime a dozen around young stars. Such a disk probably encircled our own sun in its infancy, providing the raw material for planets.Beta Pictoris, in contrast, has reigned as one of the few middle-aged stars known to ...
Quiet hints preceded Kobe earthquake.(Japan)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... Months before last January's devastating earthquake, the ground beneath Kobe, Japan, started showing signs of an impending crisis. Subsurface water displayed chemical changes that intensified in the days before the disaster, two teams of Japanese scientists report in the July 7 Science. ...
Observing individual molecular reactions.(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... Molecular reactions happen fast: In a billionth of a second, two molecules can collide, intermingle, and merge, giving rise to a new chemical product. In fact, the trading of atoms or electrons between molecules takes place so quickly that scientists can only estimate the true reaction ...
Trapping and storing frigid antimatter.(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... When electron meets positron, the two particles promptly annihilate each other, disappearing in a puff of radiation. So trapping and storingpositrons--the positively charged, antimatter counterparts of electrons--in the midst of ordinary matter is a delicate operation. ...
Fishy clues to a toxaphene puzzle.(pesticide buildup in Yukon Territory's Lake Laberge)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... In 1991, Canada banned angling at the seemingly pristine Lake Laberge in its Yukon Territory, citing dangerous concentrations of the banned pesticide toxaphene in the lake's fish. Because the catch from neighboring waters carried barely detectable amounts of toxaphene, suspicion fell on ...
Nicotine plays deadly role in infant death.(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995; ... As a result of studies associating smoking with miscarriage and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), pregnant women are usually advised by their doctors to kick the habit (SN: 3/11/95, p.151). A new study adds weight to that advice and explains how smoking may lead to SIDS.A group ...
Feeding microbes to get rid of nitrates.(in drinking water)
Jul 15, 1995; ... Many sources of drinking water, polluted by fertilizers and other contaminants, contain high concentrations of nitrate, which studies have shown to cause cancer in humans. No simple method exists for removing nitrates, and groundwater rich in this contaminant has little use except on crops. ...
Deceptive appearances: imagined physical defects take an ugly personal toll.
Jul 15, 1995; ... It sounds like an episode from The Twilight Zone. Submitted for your approval: In communities across the country, teenagers and young adults watch their bodies undergo horrid transformations. Noses sprout revolting bumps, faces break out in red spots, breasts and genitals shrink or enlarge ...
Protecting animal and human habitats.(Endangered Species Act)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995 ... While Congress is seeking to protect property owners from the Endangered Species Act, the Supreme Court is protecting endangered species from private property owners.The act, first passed in 1973, forbids anyone from taking an endangered or threatened species. It defines "take" as ...
If they can survive in New York City....(peregrine falcon)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995 ... The peregrine falcon has staged such a successful comeback from the dark days of DDT that it may soon be taken off the endangered species list, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said June 30.Babbitt made his announcement from a New York City rooftop where a pair of the ...
Beyond estrogens: why unmasking hormone-mimicking pollutants proves so challenging.
Jul 15, 1995; ... Over the past year, the news media have hammered home the message that most of the animal kingdom is bathed in a sea of pollutants that act like estrogen, the primary female sex hormone. Reinforced by photos of birds, fish, and alligators exhibiting gonadal malformations, a growing awareness ...
The dark side of nighttime warming. (global warming)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995 ... If global warming strikes mostly at night, as it has in recent decades, it could pump up the destructive power of summer storms, according to a French scientist.Meteorologists noted several years ago that daily minimum temperatures have climbed faster than daily maximums during the ...
The search for early dirt.(earliest dry land evidence)(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995 ... Earth was all wet early on, with a single ocean unbroken by any continents. When continental crust finally emerged from the waves, it fundamentally changed all aspects of the planet, from the internal convective roilings to the external soup of gases in the atmosphere. A group of Australian ...
Newest estrogen mimics the commonest?(phthalates activate estrogen receptors)
Jul 15, 1995 ... Phthalates, compounds best known for their ability to make plastics flexible, are the most abundant industrial contaminants in the environment. Two new studies now demonstrate that at least a couple of them possess a hormonal alter ego: They activate receptors for estrogen, the primary ...
Chlordane's lingering neurotoxicity.(Brief Article)
Jul 15, 1995 ... After learning that outdoor use of chlordane--a highly toxic termite killer--could taint the indoor air of treated structures for a year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got the manufacturer to halt sales in 1987. But significant indoor contamination could persist through at least ...
Human genetic origins go nuclear. (new genetic dating method using DNA)
Jul 22, 1995; ... A new method of "absolute genetic dating," announced by scientists last week, promises to rejuvenate molecular studies of the evolution of humans and other animals. While it has not yet resolved disputes over humanity's origin, the technical advance has undoubtedly shifted the terms of the ...
What makes gold such a noble metal? (research on reactivity)
Jul 22, 1995; ... A glorious, glistening metal well known to jewelers, bankers, and thieves, gold enchants artisans while mystifying scientists. So malleable is the precious metal that a craftsman can hammer an ounce of gold into a 300-square-foot sheet.But why, chemists wonder, does gold remain ...
Iron surprise: algae absorb carbon dioxide.
Jul 22, 1995; ... In a politically charged experiment, an international team of researchers turned a patch of the Pacific Ocean green with plankton by adding trace amounts of iron to the water. The study demonstrated that fertilizing ocean plants with iron can spur them to absorb vast amounts of carbon ...
Artificial RNA enzymes: big and fast. (research on ribozymes)
Jul 22, 1995; ... RNA, the molecular middleman that translates DNA into proteins, has long been like the comic Rodney Dangerfield: It just didn't "get no respect."That scientific disdain evaporated in the last decade as researchers discovered that RNA can perform an important duty many considered ...
New pertussis vaccines safer, more effective. (two European studies of 25,000 infants found acellular vaccines superior to current vaccines in the treatment of whooping cough)(Brief Article)
Jul 22, 1995; ... The ritual of fretful parents fussing over feverish infants after childhood vaccinations may soon be history. Two studies demonstrate that a new generation of whooping cough (pertussis) vaccines is both safer and more effective than the vaccine now used in the United States.In ...
Galileo launches probe toward Jupiter. (the Galileo spacecraft deployed a probe on July 13, 1995, that will relay information about the planet's atmosphere)(Brief Article)
Jul 22, 1995; ... After a 6-year piggyback ride, the probe on the Galileo spacecraft successfully separated from the mother ship on July 13 and began the 51-million-mile journey to Jupiter.The probe's plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere 5 months from now might look something like this artist's ...
ASCA sheds light on galaxy formation. (the Japanese satellite used X-Rays to examine emissions from four galaxies; data suggests they are type II supernovas in origin)(Brief Article)
Jul 22, 1995; ... They have the spherical shape of ordinary galaxy clusters and radiate X rays and visible light at the expected intensity. In fact, the four groupings of galaxies recently observed with the Japanese X-ray satellite ASCA probably are ordinary clusters--which is precisely what intrigues Michael ...
Using network noise to boost detection. (computer-modeling research on stochastic resonance suggests that faint signals can be detected more easily)(Brief Article)
Jul 22, 1995; ... Many animals display a remarkable sensitivity to tiny signals, even when these signals are apparently drowned out by random environmental noise. A crayfish, for example, can use special hair cells on its tail to detect tiny water movements generated by the rapidly wiggling tail of a ...
New efforts to decloak 'invisible' science. (research reports written in languages other than English are often under utilized)
Jul 22, 1995; ... In the late 1970s, Iceland's director of geothermal energy programs looked over a couple of just-published reports and lamented that U.S. scientists were continuing to "reinvent the wheel." He then pulled out several documents--one a decade old--that he said described what the U.S ....
Two views of a swamp: scientists dispute legislators' take on wetlands. (dispute over wetland classification)(includes related article on the importance of wetlands)
Jul 22, 1995; ... Environmentalists and the Weyerhaeuser lumber and paper company are waging a legal battle over 17,000 acres the company owns near Plymouth, N.C. The environmentalists think the property is a wetland, which would call down legal restrictions on its use. Weyerhaeuser disputes the ...
Beam etches books on the side of a pin. (researchers have developed an information storage method suitable for archival material called high-density read-only memory)(Technology)(Brief Article)
Jul 22, 1995 ... Decades from now, readers searching for a back issue of Science News might pop a metal pin into a microscope instead of threading a roll of microfilm into a projector.Scientists at Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory have developed an information storage method they call ...
Teflon templates stimulate nerve growth. (researchers were able to bond protein chains on teflon treated with an ion plasma which might have applications in nerve regeneration)(Technology)(Brief Article)
Jul 22, 1995 ... A Teflon surface modified with a technique used in computer chip manufacturing encourages nerve cells to grow on it, say researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo.The group exposed Teflon to an ion plasma, replacing the fluorine atoms on the surface with highly ...
Corralling federal R&D: how would a Department of Science reshape federal research?
Jul 22, 1995; ... "There is something very wrong with American science," charges Reagan White House Science Advisor George A. Keyworth II."Preserving the status quo has become the overarching goal, replacing the pursuit of excellence," he continues. In addition, U.S. science suffers from "a deeply ...
Mimicking the brain: using computers to investigate neurological disorders.
Jul 22, 1995; ... Deep within the brain a single neuron fires. That electrical signaltriggers a biochemical chain reaction that courses from neuron to neuron, ultimately forming a set of connections that brings alive a scenic vista, a child's touch, or the memory of a long-ago event. Arresting any ...
Mouse obesity cured by hormone. (leptin)(Science News of the Week)
Jul 29, 1995; ... Forty-five years ago, a spontaneous mutation in a then-unknown mouse gene caused some extraordinarily obese mice to appear in the breeding colonies of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. Researchers have now shown that injections of the hormone produced by this gene in its unmutated ...
Probing the interior of a coarsening foam. (magnetic-resonance imaging used to study foam structure and flow characteristics)(Science News of the Week)(Brief Article)
Jul 29, 1995; ... Though made of gas pumped or swirled into a liquid, foams behave in ways that set them apart from their constituents. The lather of a shaving cream, for example, doesn't flow as readily as water or disperse as easily as air, and it can maintain its bubbly structure for lengthy periods of ...
Structure of protein-enzyme complex found. (cyclinA-CDK2 controls DNA replication)(Science News of the Week)(Brief Article)
Jul 29, 1995; ... Scientists have uncovered the structure of a protein-enzyme combination that controls DNA replication. This complex, known as cyclinA-CDK2, is one of a class of substances that has been linked to thyroid and other cancers.Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), a kind of enzyme, transfer ...
Hubble sheds light on galaxy formation. (Hubble Space Telescope images faint, blue galaxies that may be protogalaxies)(Brief Article)
Jul 29, 1995; ... Bringing into sharp focus a set of faint, blue galaxies that ground-based telescopes discern only as fuzzy blobs, the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new, oddly shaped class of galaxies. In the past, these galaxies apparently outnumbered the more familiar spirals and ellipticals that ...
Ice age sent shivers through the tropics. (temperature may have declined substantially in the tropics during ice age, contrary to common belief)(Science News of the Week)(Brief Article)
Jul 29, 1995; ... Among climate scientists, the tropics have the reputation of unwavering stability. When the rest of the globe turned frosty during the last ice age, some 115,000 to 10,000 years ago, Earth's midsection seemed to weather the glacial epoch with little or no cooling.But gathering ...