Science News back issues from February 1997:
Solar cloud hits Earth's magnetosphere.
Feb 01, 1997; ... In early January, the sun hurled a billion-ton cloud of gas toward Earth. A few days later, the ballooning cloud landed a one-two punch on the planet's magnetic field, jacking up the intensity of high-energy electrons in Earth's radiation belts. The cloud probably caused the demise of a $200 ...
Drug could provide alternative to flu shot. (new drug may cure flu before infection or up to 60 hours afterward)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... Though common and usually no more than an inconvenience, influenza can be deadly, especially for the elderly. Accordingly, getting a flu shot has become an annual ritual for many people.A drug now being developed may someday provide an alternative to the flu vaccine. Tested only in ...
Search for science talent scores 40 finalists. (Westinghouse Science Talent Search)
Feb 01, 1997; ... Advocates of applied science should be encouraged by the crop of 40 high school seniors named as this year's finalists in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. About half of their projects tackled down-to-earth problems, such as groundwater contamination and disposal of used oil. ...
Sight for sore eyes: a glaucoma gene. (gene identified that causes almost 10% of glaucoma cases)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997 ... A decade after they began studying a family plagued by an aggressive form of the eye disorder glaucoma, researchers have identified the mutant gene responsible. The scientists estimate that mutations in this gene may account for nearly 10 percent of all cases of glaucoma, including an ...
Continents grew early in Earth's history. (basaltic rocks from western Australia indicate continents began forming much earlier than believed)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... As biographers of the planet, geoscientists find the first chapters the most difficult to write. Although they can date the origin of the globe to 4.5 billion years ago, they know precious little about what the world looked like during its early history. A new study of Australian rocks has ...
FDA allows heart health claims for oats. (oat food products that lower serum cholesterol levels)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... Last week, the Food and Drug Administration announced that makers of low-fat, oat-rich cereals and other foods will be permitted to tout the ability of their products to lower serum cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease.Previously, the agency had allowed health claims for ...
Atom laser demonstrated in chilled drips. (condensate of sodium atoms)
Feb 01, 1997; ... Unlike an ordinary, incandescent bulb, a laser produces light of a single wavelength. Moreover, the emitted light waves are coherent, meaning that all of the energy peaks and troughs are precisely in step.Now, a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has demonstrated ...
Diabetes results from suicidal cells. (islet cells in the pancreas)(Biomedicine)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, or type I diabetes, occurs when an autoimmune reaction leads to the death of insulin-secreting islet cells in the pancreas. But is that cell death a case of murder or suicide?Diabetes researchers have long known that the disease appears after ...
The latest salvo in the prion debate. (prions may not be infectious agent for bovine spongiform encephalopathy)(Biomedicine)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... "Researchers Rule Out Proteins As Cause of 'Mad Cow' Disease" blazed the headline in the Jan. 17 Washington Post. Don't believe everything you read, however. When it comes to mad cow disease, all results remain open to interpretation.The Post story, and similar articles elsewhere, ...
Is bigger better? The fossils speak up. (mollusk evolution research challenges assumption that evolution favors larger animals)(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... All living organisms, from fungi to fig trees to flounders, tend to develop larger bodies over geologic time, according to a venerable theory of evolutionary biology. This rule, derived by Edward Drinker Cope in 1871, appears to make biological sense because beefy bodies can better defend ...
Gearing up for more hurricanes. (1997 hurricane forecast)(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997 ... A spate of hurricanes and tropical storms has hounded the Atlantic in the last 2 years, and 1997 will bring no relief, forecasts a team of hurricane researchers. William M. Gray of Colorado State University in Fort Collins and his colleagues projected last month that the Atlantic would spawn ...
Life's closest call: what cause the spectacular extinctions at the end of the Permian period?
Feb 01, 1997; ... What caused the spectacular extinctions at the end of the Permian period?The menu of any seafood restaurant bears silent witness to one of the worst moments in the history of life on Earth.Nearly 250 million years ago, at the close of the Permian period, waves of death ...
Lone stars. (a trillion stars not belonging to any galaxy may be found in intergalactic space in the Virgo constellation)(Astronomy)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... Call them outcasts, label them nomads. They're stars without a home galaxy, and for the first time astronomers have spied hundreds of them adrift in the Virgo cluster, a collection of galaxies some 60 million light-years from Earth. Each isolated star is gravitationally bound to the cluster ...
Of planets and planetary nebulas. (gravitational influence of brown dwarfs may cause characterist shape of planetary nebulas)(Astronomy)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... More than 2 centuries ago, English astronomer William Herschel spied several round, wispy objects that looked like the planet Uranus, which he had discovered just a few years earlier. He named the new objects planetary nebulas.Later observations revealed that the nebulas weren't ...
Seeking the source of gamma-ray bursts. (gamma-ray bursts may originate from distant galaxies)(Astronomy)(Brief Article)
Feb 01, 1997; ... For a fleeting moment, gamma-ray bursts radiate more energy than any quasar, then they vanish without a trace. Their brief and unpredictable appearances make it difficult to determine whether these flashes originate within the Milky Way or far beyond. Gamma-ray bursts have not been ...
Chinks in the digital armor: exploiting faults to break smart-card cryptosystems.(Cover Story)
Feb 01, 1997; ... The days of a thick wallet bulging with coins, bills, and assorted plastic cards may be numbered. Instead, a single card-a computer in your wallet-could serve as electronic cash, driver's license, credit card, and personal identifier.So-called smart cards, which incorporate ...
Pathogens push poinsettias to branch out. (phytoplasma causes branching in poinsettias)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Like a lot of other people, Ing-Ming Lee still has a Christmas poinsettia hanging around. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher in Beltsville, Md., is less interested in the plant for interior decoration than for its inner workings.Inside the plant's tissue lives a ...
Long-awaited bacterial genome debuts. (Escherichia coli bacterium genome sequenced)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Last week, Frederick R. Blattner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison made the announcement that the microbiology community had been anxiously anticipating: He and his colleagues have finished sequencing the genome of Escherichia coli, the bacterium studied for decades by biologists. ...
Understanding the language of reproduction. (gene connexin links mammalian oocytes with surrounding cells)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Chemical conversations between developing mammalian egg cells and the cells that surround them are conducted in a language scientists don't understand and through channels they couldn't identify-until now. By deleting a single gene from mice, researchers have identified one such channel and ...
Cystic fibrosis puzzle coming together. (causes of cystic fibrosis)
Feb 08, 1997; ... People with cystic fibrosis begin life with lungs that appear normal. Yet a genetic flaw leaves them singularly vulnerable to the legions of microbes in every breath they draw. Their lungs soon become infected and clogged with mucus, where germs thrive.A new report now dovetails ...
U.S. leads in science Olympics, but.... (number of scientific papers from the US not as impressive when computed on a per capita basis)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... During last year's summer Olympic games, U.S. athletes walked away with more medals-especially gold ones-than did athletes from any other nation. On a per capita basis, however, the U.S. behemoth ranked only 37th, notes Robert M. May, head of Britain's Office of Science & Technology in ...
Ukrainian fossil sprouts modern roots. (remains of child believed to bridge gap between humans and Neanderthals younger than previously believed)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Many excavations on the Crimean Peninsula in the Ukraine have yielded stone implements and skeletal pieces attributed to Neandertals. At one of the few such sites to attract widespread scientific attention, investigators more than 40 years ago found the partial remains of a child from a ...
More findings about life on the Red Planet. (debate over evidence of life on Mars)
Feb 08, 1997; ... If Martians could look down on Earth, they might be amused. Ever since a startling report last August, Earthlings have hotly debated whether a potato-shaped meteorite contains fossil evidence of primitive life on the Red Planet.Some of the controversy focuses on whether carbonates ...
Frigid atoms settle into surprising states. (rubidium atom condensates of two different types isolated in magnetic trap)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997 ... When poet Robert Service wrote of the "strange things done in the midnight sun" of the frigid Arctic, he wasn't referring to atoms chilled to temperatures near absolute zero. Nonetheless, such atomic assemblages turn out to display a host of surprising characteristics.In the ...
Natural-born killers: some cancer cells not only dodge immune cells, they kill them.
Feb 08, 1997; ... Some cancer cells not only dodge immune cells, they kill them.At least once each day, a person's immune system snuffs out a cell that has taken a turn down the path leading to cancer. For decades, physicians assumed that the immune system and such cells play a game of cat and ...
Peeking inside an electron's screen. (findings support the existence of virtual particles)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Standard references and textbooks describe an electron as a stable elementary particle. Typically, they specify values for its mass, electric charge, and spin, and they sometimes mention vaguely that an electron's charge appears concentrated in a point. However, there's both more and less to ...
Kindergarten cues to teen drug use. (personality traits of high novelty seeking and low harm avoidance may predispose boys to abuse drugs as teenagers)(Behavior)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Boys who exhibit a cluster of extreme personality characteristics by age 6 prove far more likely than their peers to smoke cigarettes, get drunk, and use illicit drugs in the first few years of adolescence, a long-term study finds."These results suggest that preventive initiatives ...
Filling in the brain's line of sight. (visual perception in brain-damaged woman)(Behavior)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... A curious visual quirk sometimes arises after damage to one or the other side of the brain, usually to tissue near the brain's midpoint. A single object lying in either the right or left visual field is visible, but an item placed in the visual field opposite the ailing hemisphere vanishes ...
Deep ocean is no place to hide. (seafloor vents did not protect species from extinction at the end of the Permian period)(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Far below the waves, in the dark reaches of the sea, underwater gardens bloom wherever volcanic fluids seep from the seafloor. These hot, chemical-laden brines sustain an odd collection of microbes and animals, among them tube-shaped worms, giant clams, and blind shrimp. Because these hidden ...
Cold climate lingered after ice age. (research indicates that North America remained cold long after beginning of Holocene epoch)(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997 ... For generations of geology students, the term Younger Dryas has meant the end of the last ice age. During this period, from 10,800 to 10,300 years ago, the globe shivered through one final cold spell before entering the warm Holocene epoch, according to standard wisdom. Now, a lake in ...
Bees and keepers tackle mite-y problem. (biological strategies proposed to control varroa mite that is devastating honey bees across North America)(Biology)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... If you find you've been paying a high price for honey lately, you can blame it in part on the varroa mite. It's the most destructive of the two kinds of mites that have infested and devastated honeybees across North America (SN: 6/29/96, p. 406). Like a tick ingesting human blood, the varroa ...
Dolphin deaths: a tributyl tin connection? (butyl tin compounds used to protect boat hulls suppress immune systems of bottle-nosed dolphins)(Biology)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Added to marine paint, the compound tributyl tin checks the growth of barnacles and algae on the bottom of boats. In the late 1980s, many countries, including the United States, banned its use on small hulls after researchers began documenting the toxic effects of the so-called antifouling ...
Genetics of Sumatra's at-risk rhino. (two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros)(Biology)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... In many cases, an endangered species can more accurately be described as a collection of genetically distinct endangered populations. To maximize diversity, each population needs to be managed separately-if there are enough individuals to keep the population alive.The two-horned ...
FWS proposes protection for bog turtle. (US Fish and Wildlife Service)(Biology)(Brief Article)
Feb 08, 1997; ... Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed categorizing the bog turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii), one of the rarest turtles in the United States, as "threatened" on the endangered species list. The turtles are small, with a brightly colored patch on each ...
Hidden worlds collide; how one deadly epidemic flushed another from hiding. (rabies-like virus identified in Australia)
Feb 08, 1997; ... How one deadly epidemic flushed another from hiding.Veteran trainer Vic Rail had never seen so many horses so sick. Fourteen of the 21 thoroughbreds in his Brisbane, Australia, stable could scarcely breathe. A pregnant mare had died, blood spouting from her nostrils.Rail ...
Tallying nitrogen's increasing impact. (human activities' influence on the nitrogen cycle)
Feb 15, 1997; ... For most of agricultural history, nitrogen has been a precious commodity. Only specialized bacteria and lightning could convert atmospheric nitrogen into biologically usable forms. Today, however, fertilizers and fossil fuels have made nitrogen so freely available that it has become too much ...
Car phones jack up risk of collisions. (phone use increases risk of collision by 4.3 times)(Brief Article)
Feb 15, 1997; ... Driving while phoning may soon become as notorious a traffic offense as driving while intoxicated. Both practices at least quadruple a driver's risk of having a collision, a new study shows.Donald A. Redelmeier and Robert J. Tibshirani of the University of Toronto have produced ...
Younger stars and an older bigger cosmos. (new data from the Hipparcos satellite)
Feb 15, 1997; ... The oldest stars in the Milky Way may be considerably younger than astronomers had thought, and the universe about 1 billion years older, according to a new analysis of stellar data from the Hipparcos satellite. The calculations also increase the estimated size of the cosmos by about 10 ...
Fish oil gets a garlic chaser for the heart. (lowering blood lipid levels)
Feb 15, 1997; ... Fish oil is a dietary wonder. It appears to lower the chances not only of developing breast cancer and autoimmune disease but of having heart attacks. It's one of the few substances known to lower concentrations of triglycerides, or fatty substances that pose a cardiovascular risk, in the ...
Combat vets show shifting trauma memories. (Operation Desert Storm veterans)
Feb 15, 1997; ... In the past few years, controversy has raged over whether some people lose mental access to highly traumatic experiences, such as childhood sexual abuse, only to remember the disturbing material years or decades later.A study of combat-related memories among Operation Desert Storm ...
New gene clearly resolves an eye debate. (eyes originate from one band of tissue in frogs)(Brief Article)
Feb 15, 1997; ... In Greek myth, the Cyclopes were a race of fierce giants equipped with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. It's a sad reality that a similar affliction, a single eye or the fusion of two eyes, strikes human fetuses and that this rare condition is invariably accompanied by fatal ...
Science funding slips in 1998 budget. (proposed federal budget)
Feb 15, 1997; ... During his State of the Union address last week, President Bill Clinton told the nation that "to prepare America for the 21st century, we must harness the powerful forces of science and technology to benefit all Americans." Yet evidence of this commitment to research and development (R&D) ...
Jomon genes: using DNA, researchers probe the genetic origins of modern Japanese.(Cover Story)
Feb 15, 1997; ... Japan is generally considered one of the most modern, forward-looking countries in the world. Yet the Japanese also have an intense fascination with their islands' past, particularly the history and continuing influence of two peoples known as the Jomon and the Yayoi.The Jomon, the ...
The birth of breast cancer; do adult diseases start in the womb?
Feb 15, 1997; ... Epidemiologist Dimitrios Trichopoulos, puzzling over why women develop breast cancer, focused on various factors before homing in on a chemical that appeared to operate in a surprising environment many years earlier.That chemical is the natural hormone estrogen, which may have set ...
How antioxidants defend cells.(Chemistry)
Feb 15, 1997; ... Antioxidants in the body act as chemical scavengers, intercepting reactive molecules called free radicals before they have a chance to damage cells. Two recent studies shed some light on how such protective mechanisms work.In one study, researchers examined how vitamin E, vitamin ...
Gauging gas reserves. (natural gas reserves measured directly)(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
Feb 15, 1997 ... The first direct measurement of natural gas imprisoned in sediment beneath a portion of the ocean floor has added fuel to a debate about the magnitude of such gas reserves worldwide.Scientists drilled hundreds of meters into the ocean bed in two spots on Blake Ridge, 3 kilometers ...
Ocean's impact on climate predictions. (new computer model improves climactic prediction)(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
Feb 15, 1997 ... Forecasting the weather more than a few days in advance is no easier in Europe than it is anywhere else. A stabilizing effect of the North Atlantic, however, may enable scientists to predict climatic trends in the region for up to 10 years.A new computer model developed by Stephen ...
A new breadth to estrogen's bisexuality.(studies indicate estrogen is important to sexuality in both genders)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... Most people have been taught to think of estrogens as female sex hormones and androgens as male sex hormones. "But that's simply not true," notes Donald W. Pfaff.Indeed, a pair of studies by Pfaff, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University in New York, and his colleagues has ...
Southern California: dearth of quakes?(new analysis of historical seismic trends indicates low chance of major earthquake in southern California for five to 10 years)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... In a reprise of the 1970s, Hollywood is churning out a torrent of disaster movies in which various U.S. cities get shaken, baked, and pummeled by nature gone mad. In real life, Los Angeles and its environs are currently enjoying a welcome respite from their chief nemesis-the strong ...
Unraveling the inner structure of a nucleus.(cell nucleus)
Feb 22, 1997; ... The cells of plants and animals are superb packers. Each cell must jam large quantities of DNA, parceled into threadlike structures called chromosomes, into a microscopic sac known as the nucleus. The 46 chromosomes in the nucleus of a human cell would extend several feet if stretched out ....
New drugs zap cancer cells with radiation.(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... Radiation and chemotherapy have long been the most potent anticancer weapons. Now, researchers are testing drugs that combine the two techniques and may one day act as smart bullets for treating certain kinds of cancer. At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in ...
Left-handed excess in meteorite molecules.(amino acid research)
Feb 22, 1997; ... One of the striking features of life on Earth is the distinctive handedness of the amino acid molecules that serve as the building blocks of proteins. Although a typical amino acid exists in two molecular forms that are mirror images of each other, only the left-handed version participates ...
Advances in heart care shrink death rate.(coronary heart disease mortality dropped 34% from 1980 to 1990)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... A decline in heart disease deaths since 1980, though gratifying, has confounded researchers, who find it difficult to reconcile with evidence that one in four people still smoke and many ignore other entreaties to protect their hearts.Now, a study of coronary heart disease ...
Radio astronomy gets off the ground.(Very Long Baseline Space Observatory launched)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... That dream became reality last week when Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science launched an 8-meter radio telescope into an elliptical orbit that takes it from 990 kilometers to nearly 20,000 km away from Earth. On its own, the sensitivity of this lightweight device, a meshwork ...
A new direction for microgravity fires.(experiments on fires in space show the influence of microgravity)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... Flames in space sometimes burn into the wind in seeming violation of the laws of physics, report scientists who have studied fire on the space shuttle. The researchers and shuttle astronauts described their experiments last week at a microgravity conference at the National Academy of ...
A supernova turns 10: birthday of an explosion.(supernova 1987A)
Feb 22, 1997; ... The proximity of the explosion, known as a supernova, made it the brightest such event since 1604. At its peak, it glowed with the luminosity of 100 million suns. "We had seen nothing like this since the time of [astronomers] Tycho and Kepler," says Stanford E. Woosley of the University of ...
Crab crackers: scientists take a harder look at stone crab shells.
Feb 22, 1997; ... Serendipity struck Cynthia Melnick Sloop in a seafood restaurant. A zoology student at the University of Florida in Gainesville at the time, she was feasting on a plate of stone crabs when she noticed that the black-tipped claws were much harder to crack than the light-colored parts of the ...
Sex allergy: no laughing matter.(research indicates some women are allergic to seminal fluid)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... The phrase "Not tonight, dear" may be a deadly serious matter for women who suffer from an allergy to their husband's seminal fluid, the liquid that carries sperm. In rare cases, such an allergic response can cause death. The first case of an allergy to human seminal fluid was documented in ...
The question of regular mammograms. (National Institutes of Health and American Cancer Society offer conflicting views on value of mammograms for women aged 40 to 49)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... Women in their forties still have no clear answer on whether to get regular mammograms, X-ray tests that can detect breast cancer. Late last month, a panel of specialists put together by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., reviewed evidence from scientific reports and ...
Overfishing imperils cod reproduction.(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... Though eaten throughout Europe, North Sea cod is perhaps best known as the finned component of Britain's fish-and-chips. In the early 1980s, trawlers netted some 250,000 to 300,000 metric tons of this cod annually. Today, though fishing no less intensively, trawlers haul in only about 90,000 ...
Erosion tails tropical trails.(research indicates increased erosion on trails in tropical rainforests)(Brief Article)
Feb 22, 1997; ... Many programs aimed at improving the economy of communities in tropical rain forests have promoted ecotourism, nut harvesting, and other activities that protect the environment. One largely ignored impact of these programs, however, is the role that trails play in the erosion of the forests' ...
Radical prostates: female hormones may play a pivotal role in a distinctly male epidemic.(prostate cancer)(includes related information on DNA damage)(Cover Story)
Feb 22, 1997; ... Estrogen remains one of the strongest and best-characterized risk factors for breast cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths in U.S. women. The greater a woman's lifetime exposure to this quintessential female sex hormone, the greater her chance of developing the disease. ...