Science News back issues from May 2001:
Letters.
May 05, 2001 ... Textbook examples As a university earth science professor, I view my son's middle and high school science texts with horror ("Errant texts," SN: 3/17/01, p. 168). I see similar symptoms in the behavior of some of my undergraduate students. I view the problem as being an ...
Rocks May Have Given a Hand to Life.(calcite may have absorbed amino acids, leading to a bonding into peptides)(Abstract)
May 05, 2001; ... A long-standing mystery about the origin of life has a new possible solution. The puzzle is that amino acids, the constituents of proteins, occur in two chemically identical forms that have structures mirroring each other like two gloves. Most chemical processes yield left- and ...
Epileptic seizures may be predictable.(the discovery of electrical impulses in the brain may lead to seizure warnings)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... People with epilepsy typically lead peaceful lives in the days and hours between their seizures. However, the calm they experience before the mental storms may not be so tranquil after all. Patterns of mild electrical disturbance in the brains of epilepsy patients seem to ...
New probe reveals unfamiliar inner proton.(electromagnetic interior of protons discovered)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... Physicists have known since the turn of the past century that protons lie at the heart of all ordinary matter. But this elementary component of nature has kept from scientists some secrets about its inner workings. Researchers taking one of the closest looks yet into the intact ...
Even low lead in kids has a high IQ cost.(lead poisoning)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... At exposures far lower than the limit deemed acceptable by the U.S. government, lead can damage a young child's ability to learn and reason, researchers report this week. Moreover, a small increase in lead concentration exerts a more potent effect on the child's IQ when the blood shows a ...
Have scientists seen planets in the making?(dust and gas around stars may be the beginning of planets)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... Astronomers may finally have glimpsed a key step in the construction of a planet. Both theory and observations suggest that the doughnut-shape disks of gas and dust that surround many newborn stars are the spawning grounds for planets. The Hubble Space Telescope has spied many ...
For some birds, Mr. Wrong can be alright.(flycatcher mating patterns)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... What looks like the ultimate bad choice in romance--a mate from a different species--in some conditions may not be so dumb after all, according to a new analysis of flycatchers. Two European species do face some poor consequences when they mix, acknowledges Ben C. Sheldon of the ...
Dolphins may seek selves in mirror images.(indications of self-awareness in dolphins)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... In Greek mythology, the lad Narcissus wasted away because he couldn't bear to stop staring at his reflection in a pool of water. Although people have a stranglehold on such narcissistic pursuits, dolphins recognize their own reflections much as folks do, according to a new study. ...
Peptide puts mouse arthritis out of joint.(indication that vasointestinal peptide can reduce inflamation and damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... A wide array of cells and proteins influences every immune response to a pathogen. Some get the defense into gear by causing inflammation. Others put the brakes on the response after the foe is defeated and return the body to normal. In rheumatoid arthritis--as in other ...
Music, language may meet in the brain.(right and left brain areas work together to perceive music and language)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001; ... Corresponding left- and right-brain areas that are considered crucial for understanding spoken language also orchestrate the perception of musical passages, according to a study in the May NATURE NEUROSCIENCE. These brain regions deal with implicit rules that organize complex ...
School kids cite widespread bullying.(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001 ... Bullying represents a pervasive reality for students in grades 6 through 10, a national survey reports. Among the more than 15,000 students surveyed in public and private schools throughout the United States, 10 percent said they had been bullied by other students at least once ...
Long-term ecstasy use impairs memory.(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001 ... The illicit drug methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also called MDMA or ecstasy, is known to cause memory problems. A new study for the first time finds that extended use of the drug can exacerbate this damage. Researchers Konstantine K. Zakzanis and Donald A. Young of the ...
Tamoxifen dilates arteries in men.(use of breast cancer drug may aid heart disease)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001 ... The breast cancer drug tamoxifen can widen a narrowed coronary artery in men with heart problems, a new study shows. Although the test population comprised only a few dozen participants, the study suggests that the drug may play a valuable role beyond fighting cancer. ...
The Latest Pisces of an Evolutionary Puzzle.(discovery of coelacanth off coast of South Africa)
May 05, 2001; ... A fascinating fish that time hasn't forgotten When Pieter C.R. Venter slipped beneath the waves off the northeastern coast of South Africa last October, he didn't expect to find biological gold. Venter, a patent attorney on vacation from Pretoria, was taking the final dive in a ...
Novel nanotubes are now made-to-order.(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001 ... By designing self-assembling parts, researchers have discovered how to make nanotubes with specific sizes and traits. Hicham Fenniri and his team at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., constructed unique molecules as building blocks for nanotubes. Each 1-nanometer ...
Inorganic tubes get smaller than ever.(nanotube creation)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001 ... Researchers have created the smallest stable, freestanding nanotubes yet. The molybdenum disulfide tubes, each less than 1 nanometer (nm) in diameter, could eventually become components of novel materials, electronic devices, and batteries, say the scientists. Previous ...
Stuff gets stiffed by unstiff inserts.(composite material research)(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001 ... Stiff materials resist deforming when you poke them. In contrast, some materials give way so dramatically to the slightest touch that they are said to have an exotic property known as negative stiffness. When pressed, such materials break apart or suddenly rearrange themselves internally, ...
Electromagnetism acts oddly in device.(Brief Article)
May 05, 2001 ... Using little fiberglass boards and copper wires, a group of California physicists has created a structure that behaves as though it were from some strange, mirror world. Signs of their creation's oddness showed up when David R. Smith and his colleagues at the University of ...
Getting Nanowired.(nanowires and semiconductor chips)
May 05, 2001; ... Makers of nanowires may overcome the limits that loom for microchip fabrication In his laboratory at Harvard University, chemist Charles M. Lieber puts a drop of clear solution onto a tiny silicon wafer. It looks like any old liquid, but it isn't. Suspended in the fluid are ...
Letters.
May 12, 2001 ... Gone ghotin "Dyslexia gets a break in Italy" (SN 3/31/01, p. 205) brought to mind a remark I learned in grade school decades ago. It is: In English, the word fish can be spelled ghoti. That's gh as in tough, o as in women, and ti as in nation: "ghoti" = "fish." English can be ...
Lead Therapy Won't Help Most Kids.(chelation therapy found ineffective for most childrern with lead poisoning)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... Drugs exist that will bind to lead and remove the toxic heavy metal from a person's blood. This therapy, called chelation, has saved the lives of people suffering from acute poisoning. However, a major study now finds that for children who have had moderate exposure to lead, chelation ...
Memory may draw addicts back to cocaine.(study indicates that recall of memories may release a chemical that can bring about a cocaine addiction relapse)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... Nostalgia may be a recovering drug addict's worst enemy. A memory center of the brain acts as an ignition switch for relapse into cocaine addiction, scientists suggest in the May 11 SCIENCE. The researchers electrically stimulated the hippocampus in the brains of formerly ...
Hurricanes' full havoc hasn't yet been felt.(environmental effects from 1999 hurricanes in North Carolina)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... Forget about a mere one-two punch. When Hurricanes Dennis, Floyd, and Irene pummeled North Carolina in the fall of 1999, they delivered a three-punch combination that for years to come may disturb coastal ecosystems there and disrupt fishing in the Atlantic Ocean. The three ...
Astronomers get the spin on black holes.(observers believe that black holes spin)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... For all their mind-boggling effects on geometry, warping the very fabric of space and time, black holes are governed by two just properties--mass and spin. Although these superdense objects don't emit light, their mass can be measured with relative ease if they are partnered ...
Domesticated goats show unique gene mix.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... Goats have long been a favorite of farmers for good reason. They can survive on seemingly inedible scraps of vegetation in the harshest environments. And they provide milk, meat, skin, and fibers without taking up much space. Those qualities go a long way toward explaining why ...
Gene stifled in some lung, breast cancers.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... Many genes encode proteins whose job is to inhibit cell growth. Some of these genes suppress the growth of tumors, and a few have become household names, such as the BRCA1 gene, which inhibits breast cancer. A gene called RASSF1A could become the next member of this rarefied ...
Outcry saves National Zoo's research site.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... The National Zoo's research center in Front Royal, Va., survived a near-death experience last weekend, saved by an outcry of public support. Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small had planned to close the Conservation and Research Center (CRC) as part of his reorganized budget ...
Device shifts molecules into slow motion.(prototype device similar to that of accelerator used for particles)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001; ... Revving subatomic particles to fantastic speeds within huge accelerators has been a mainstay for physicists probing what makes matter tick. Now, with a novel, table-top machine, scientists say they hope to measure molecular properties with greater precision than before and to assemble ...
Fat may spur heart cells on to suicide.(fatty acids in the heart)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... As if clogged arteries weren't bad enough, the mere presence of fat in the heart may kill cells and eventually lead to heart failure, researchers suggest in the April 2001 JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION. Jean E. Schaffer and her colleagues at the Washington University School ...
Virulent bacterium's DNA is sequenced.(Staphylococcus aureus)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... Bacteriologists have one more complete genome sequence in their grasp. This time, the deciphered DNA belongs to Staphylococcus aureus, one of the slipperiest infectious organisms to race through a hospital ward. Besides its nasty habit of releasing toxins in its victims, the ...
New anthrax treatment works in rats.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... By distorting a protein in the toxin that makes anthrax deadly, scientists have discovered a potentially better way to treat the disease and perhaps even to prevent it with a vaccine. The microbe that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, can release its toxin in both animals and ...
Gene therapy cures blindness in dogs.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... Three dogs with congenital blindness can now see, thanks to gene therapy. By injecting each dog behind one of its retinas with a virus carrying replacement DNA, researchers have reversed the effects of a mutation in the RPE65 gene. A mutation in this gene also causes human blindness. Those ...
Death of a theory.(theory that AIDS was spread by polio vaccine made from chimpanzee cells)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... The controversial theory purporting that AIDS spread to people from oral polio vaccine in Africa in the late 1950s has been deflated. The assertion that the vaccine was made from virus-infected chimpanzee kidney cells had been rebutted by three independent laboratories (SN: 9/23/00, p ....
Big Bergs Ahoy!(more icebergs splitting from Antarctica than before)
May 12, 2001; ... An armada of ice sets sail for the new millennium What's eating Antarctica? In March 2000, an 11,000-square-kilometer iceberg the size of Connecticut split from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Two months later, a similar area of ice broke free from the continent's Ronne Ice ...
Pacific Northwest stirred, not shaken.(1999 earthquake on ocean floor near Washington and British Columbia)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... News flash: In the summer of 1999, the residents of Washington State, British Columbia, and the surrounding area didn't experience a magnitude 6.7 earthquake. That's right, they didn't feel a thing, although lower portions of the Earth's crust moved 20 millimeters. In a sudden ...
Pump up a plateau to make a monsoon.(how monsoons are created)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... The Tibetan Plateau, an area in central Asia half the size of the United States and with an average altitude of more than 5 kilometers, has a powerful effect on climates in surrounding regions. Now, scientists have used computer models to show that both the onset of Asian monsoons and ...
Maybe this watched pot already boiled.(new analysis of results of experiments in particle accelerators)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... It's easy to see when water boils, but it's much harder to discern the roiling transitions of matter and space in particle accelerators. As it turns out, little bits of space may have reached a coveted cosmic boil years ago in some of the world's highest-energy particle ...
Lead blocks may catch nuclear killer.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2001 ... Spectacular explosions in which heavy atomic nuclei spontaneously burst into neutrons and protons have long puzzled scientists. Scientists first noticed these "star events" while using thick photographic emulsions to detect cosmic rays. But the cause for these rarely seen bursts has ...
Motif for Infection.(bacteria)
May 12, 2001; ... A novel computer program pinpoints proteins of troublesome bacteria Bacterial soft rot can severely damage a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Infected potatoes, for example, develop mushy areas that render them inedible. The chief culprit is a bacterium called ...
Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
May 19, 2001 ... Magnesium missing link Regarding "Depression linked to heart deaths" (SN: 3/31/01, p. 205): Depression is a common symptom of magnesium deficiency. Heart attacks, including fatal heart attacks, are also a common symptom of magnesium deficiency. It is thus no surprise that ...
Anticancer Protein Locks onto DNA.(BRCA1 gene)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Scientists now have a toehold on a slippery problem in cancer biology: the action of BRCA1, the gene most likely to be mutated in inherited breast cancer. In its normal form, the gene encodes a tumor-suppressing protein, BRCA1. Previous genetic studies suggested that this ...
To save gardens, ants rush to whack weeds.(gardening behavior of ants)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Ants that grow their food have to weed, too. Now, the first detailed study of ants tending fungus gardens shows that whether the gardener has two legs or six, the chore looks much the same. Like the best human gardeners, ants try to stop a weed invasion in its early stages, ...
They're not briquettes, but they'll do.(fossil charcoal is believed to be 360 million years old)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Chunks of 360-million-year-old fossil charcoal found in sediments in north-central Pennsylvania provide the earliest evidence yet that wildfires swept ancient landscapes. Road construction exposed a 1-meter-thick layer of siltstone containing several layers of charcoal chunks, ...
Light shines in quantum-computing arena.(optical device produces quantum computing)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... For a few years, scientists have been predicting that computers exploiting the quantum properties of matter will carry out computations billions of times faster than today's supercomputers. Yet the technical challenges are so daunting that such quantum computers may not be feasible for ...
Snacking in space: Star dines on planet.(astronomical observation)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Burp! A star has been caught red-handed with the digested remains of one or more of its own planets. Studying the light from the star HD 82943, known to have two planets, astronomers have found that its atmosphere contains a fragile lithium isotope. That's surprising ...
Many refugees can't flee mental ailments.(many Bhutanese refugees suffering from mental disorders)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Serious psychiatric disorders now plague many of the more than 100,000 people who in the past decade have fled government persecution in the Asian nation of Bhutan. Refugees who had been tortured have fared particularly poorly, according to a new study of this displaced population. ...
San Jose hosts 2001 science competition.(Intel International Science and Engineering Fair)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... More than 1,200 high school students flocked to the epicenter of high technology last week to present research projects at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Students from nearly 40 countries competed in San Jose, Calif., the heart of Silicon Valley, for more ...
Virus in transplanted hearts bodes ill.(children who have received a heart transplant)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Researchers monitoring children who received heart transplants report that common viral infections of the implants can send these patients on a downward spiral. Tests reveal that the viruses don't arrive with the donated organ but rather infect the recipient sometime after ...
Free-floaters: Images of planets?(dispute over what qualifies as planet)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Recent reports have sparked a vigorous debate about just what constitutes a planet. The controversy escalated last summer when astronomers began unveiling images of star-forming regions showing a multitude of low-mass objects. Based on estimates of their mass alone, the bodies ...
Brains show evolutionary designs.(the brains of mammals)(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... Mammalian brains come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and organizations. Just how these neural disparities evolved remains mysterious. Damon A. Clark of Princeton University and his colleagues are trying a new approach to this puzzle by comparing the proportions of nearly a ...
Here come mom and dad.(data on two-parent family life)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 19, 2001; ... Welcome back to the good old days of family life. Children in two-parent families now spend more time with their mothers and fathers than children did 20 years ago, concludes a study slated to appear in DEMOGRAPHY. The time kids spend with their mothers in single-parent families has ...
A More Perfect Union.(relationship of insects and bacteria)
May 19, 2001; ... Genetic studies show how insects and bacteria within them have teamed up Sometime between 250 to 150 million years ago, a period beginning before the dinosaurs appeared and lasting well into their reign, a bacterium took up residence inside the body of an insect. The bacterium ...
Cosmic Chemistry Gets Creative.(theory that asteroid or other space object caused life to begin on earth)
May 19, 2001; ... Big guns, bench work: How life could've come from above In a laboratory at the University of Chicago, Jennifer Blank places a steel capsule in the firing path of a 15-meter-long gun that shoots soda-can-size bullets. Sensibly, she then leaves the room. From next door, she and ...
How spiny lobsters make scary noises.(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... On an evolutionary tree, spiny lobsters sit near crickets. Yet musically, the crustaceans belong closer to a person torturing a violin. Crickets make the sound track for summer by rubbing a hardened scraper, against a patch of ridges. One of the insect's forewings carries the scraper and ...
Lyme ticks lurk on golf course edges.(Brief Article)
May 19, 2001; ... A survey of ticks on golf courses adds new reasons to keep shots out of the rough. The tiny deer ticks that spread Lyme disease typically don't turn up on the open grass of golf course fairways, according to Elyes Zhioua of University of Rhode Island in Kingston. Surrounding ...
Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
May 26, 2001 ... Bush whack I just read "Biomedicine, defense to sidestep budget ax" (SN: 4/14/01, p. 231). Now, I know that George Bush owes his rich cronies a ton of money and favors, but a 10-year program to develop clean energy from coal? Why spend 20 years developing energy from coal, ...
Early Mammal's Jaw Lost Its Groove.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... A tiny fossil skull found within 195-million-year-old Chinese sediments provides evidence that crucial features of mammal anatomy evolved more than 45 million years earlier than previously recognized. The well-preserved fossil shows several characteristics of mammals, says ...
Look on the bright side and survive longer.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... Brief autobiographies written more than 60 years ago by a group of then young Catholic nuns have now become a matter of life or death. Those nuns who chronicled positive emotions in their twenties have lived markedly longer than those who recounted emotionally neutral personal histories, a ...
Antibiotic resistance is coming to dinner.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... Bacteria that are immune to several antibiotics are showing up in a broad range of foods on grocery store shelves, new studies show. It's a recipe for rising illness and deaths from food poisoning, according to data reported in Orlando, Fla., this week at the American Society ...
Designer surface proves deadly to bacteria.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... Using a novel approach to microbe killing, a team of researchers has made a new coating that could render countertops, computer keyboards, and even hospital sheets permanently antiseptic. Unlike most antibacterial treatments, which lose microbe-repelling power as their active ...
Poliovirus slaughters brain tumors in mice.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... Scientists have harnessed the killing power of a debilitating virus to slay even more deadly foes--malignant brain tumors. In research on mice, Mattias M. Gromeier and his colleagues altered a live poliovirus, inducing it to attack and eliminate tumor cells in the animals' brains. ...
Slave-making ants get rough in New York.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... The slavery racket in the ant world is more violent in New York than in West Virginia, even though the same species are involved. That's the conclusion of the first laboratory analyses of how slavers and their slaves might be driving each other's evolution, explains Susanne ...
Genetic flaw found in painful gut disease.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... Because roughly one in five people with Crohn's disease has a close relative who shares the illness, scientists have long suspected that the digestive disorder has an inherited component. Now, after years of genetic sleuthing, two independent research teams have identified a gene, called ...
Electrons trip on tiny semiconductor steps.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... Increasingly, engineers refer to the heads that read computer hard disks as "spintronics devices." That's because these sensors use the orientations of electrons' magnetic fields, or spins, to read the ones and zeros of digital information. If scientists could extend spintronics ...
Caterpillars die rather than switch.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2001; ... Researchers have found a compound in potatoes and tomatoes that turns tobacco hornworm caterpillars into addicts. In the lab, at least a third of hornworms become so addicted to the compound, indioside D, that they starve rather than switch to food without it, reports Marta del ...