Science News back issues from January 2006:
Stone Age footwork: ancient human prints turn up down under.(This Week)
Jan 07, 2006; ... Researchers working near the shore of a dried-up lake basin in southeastern Australia have taken a giant leap backward in time. They've uncovered the largest known collection of Stone Age human footprints. The 124-or-more human-foot impressions, as well as a few prints left by ...
Alzheimer clue: busy brain connections may have downside.(neuroscience research)
Jan 07, 2006; ... Brain areas that are chronically activated produce increased amounts of amyloid beta, the waxy protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease, a study in mice shows. The work comes on the heels of a report, released 5 months ago, showing that brain areas switched on during ...
Gunning for the gut: tiny particles might fight invasive zebra mussels.(This Week)
Jan 07, 2006; ... By modifying a method used to flavor foods, researchers have made a substance that poisons the zebra mussel. That invasive species clogs water pipes that feed power plants and other facilities. Around the Great Lakes and along much of the Mississippi watershed, facility ...
Molecular car park: material packs in carbon dioxide.(organometallic compounds as absorbents)
Jan 07, 2006; ... A crystalline material composed of metal and organic building blocks holds more carbon dioxide than other porous substances do, chemists report. The discovery could lead to a device that reduces power plant emissions of this greenhouse gas. About 40 percent of the carbon dioxide ...
Locust upset: DNA puts swarmer's origin in Africa.(This Week)
Jan 07, 2006; ... The desert locust, often blamed for modern crop ruin and biblical plagues, was not an ancient export from the Americas, say DNA analysts. Some biologists had recently argued that Africa's storied locust arose from ancestors of today's New World Schistocerca species that crossed ...
Quantum chip: device handles ions as if they were data.(Integrated circuits design)
Jan 07, 2006; ... Physicists have created a microchip that can hold an electrically charged atom and move it back and forth within a narrow channel. These manipulations lay the groundwork for using trapped ions as data bits in computer chips, the developers of the new device say. The scientists ...
Gauging star birth: spacecraft uses gamma rays as stellar tracer.(This Week)
Jan 07, 2006; ... By detecting the radioactive remains of material hurled into space by dying stars, astronomers have estimated that, on average, our galaxy churns out seven new stars each year. The researchers used the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL spacecraft to record gamma-ray light, which ...
Mass movement.(This Week)(earth's gravitational field changed after Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami, 2004)(Brief Article)
Jan 07, 2006; ... Earth's gravitational field changed measurably in response to the December 2004 tsunami-spawning earthquake west of Sumatra. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission's satellites noted changes associated with the temblor--the first such feat, says Byron D. Tapley, ...
Bright lights, big cancer: melatonin-depleted blood spurs tumor growth.(research reveals night shifts can lead to breast cancer)
Jan 07, 2006; ... In late 1987, Richard G. Stevens, then at Pacific Northwest Laboratories in Richland, Wash., typed up a short letter and mailed it to Walter Willett at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The two epidemiologists had met just once, and Stevens wasn't confident that his 209-word note, or the ...
Magnetic overthrow: physicists expose a hidden facet of a familiar phenomenon.(Cover Story)
Jan 07, 2006; ... While conducting experiments for his physics Ph.D. in the early 1990s, Dan Ralph suddenly found himself in unfamiliar terrain without a compass. Examining nanoscale sandwiches of magnetic and nonmagnetic materials in a Cornell University lab, Ralph discovered that voltages caused by ...
Moon spray.(Enceladus' obervations)(Brief Article)
Jan 07, 2006 ... Geysers of icy material are erupting from Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus, providing incontrovertible proof that the moon is geologically active. Recent images taken by the Cassini spacecraft, which has toured the Saturnian system since July 2004, show the jets shooting far above the icy ...
Protein exposes long-term risk from heart problems.(BIOMEDICINE)(B-type natriuretic peptide)(Brief Article)
Jan 07, 2006 ... Since 2000, doctors have used elevated blood concentrations of a protein called B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) to detect incipient heart failure in people with chest pain or other inconclusive symptoms. BNP might also be a tool for predicting a person's risk of death, ...
Estimating a temblor's strength on the fly.(seismological research)(Brief Article)
Jan 07, 2006 ... New analyses of ground motions caused by large earthquakes suggest that it may be possible to estimate the full magnitude of such quakes immediately after they start rumbling. That could enable emergency systems to better warn distant populations of a temblor before it reaches them. ...
Facing a hairy electronics problem.(TECHNOLOGY)(electroplated metal films)(Brief Article)
Jan 07, 2006 ... Three satellites have gone dead because of whiskers. Last spring, a whisker shut down a Connecticut nuclear power plant. The culprits aren't errant facial hairs: They're metal filaments that spontaneously sprout from electroplated metal films in electronic devices, where they can short out ...
European face-off for early farmers.(anthropological research)(Brief Article)
Jan 07, 2006 ... A new analysis of modern and ancient human skulls supports the idea that early farmers in the Middle East spread into Europe between 11,000 and 6,500 years ago, intermarried with people there, and passed on their agricultural way of life to the native Europeans. C. Loring Brace ...
Death in the Americas.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 07, 2006; ... I was wondering if researchers have given any thought to the idea that in the same way that disease devastated human populations after the European discovery of the Americas, perhaps disease was a contributing factor in the demise of much of the fauna of the Western Hemisphere ("Caribbean ...
Call that singing?(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 07, 2006; ... Humans vocalize primarily non-harmonically (talk), but some can also vocalize harmonically (sing). Birds, likewise, mostly vocalize non-harmonically (chatter), but some can vocalize harmonically. It would be most helpful, when discussing ...
Correction.(LETTERS)(Correction Notice)
Jan 07, 2006 ... The picture of artery cross sections in "Mixing Vessel: Air pollution helps cholesterol clog arteries,"(SN: ...
Sky in a Bottle.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 07, 2006 ... SKY IN A BOTTLE PETER PESIC Why is the sky blue? Children and philosophers alike have pondered this question throughout history. The sky's signature color has been attributed to factors ranging from suspended dust particles to reflections of light from Earth's oceans. Aristotle ...
Why Does a Ball Bounce? 101 Questions You Never Thought of Asking.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 07, 2006 ... WHY DOES A BALL BOUNCE? 101 questions You Never Thought of Asking ADAM HART-DAVIS This engaging book combines Hart-Davis' loves for photography and science, applied together to explain to children the principles affecting many interesting common phenomena. The 101 questions ...
Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 07, 2006 ... CLASSIC FEYNMAN: All the Adventures of a Curious Character RICHARD P. FEYNMAN AND RALPH LEIGHTON, ED. This bongo-playing, wisecracking, Nobel prize-winning physicist's larger-than-life personality elevated him to icon status within the world of science. Among his many heralded ...
Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 07, 2006 ... IDENTIFY YOURSELF: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges BILL THOMPSON III AND THE EDITORS OF BIRD WATCHER'S DIGEST The essence of bird-watching is identifying the birds viewed, yet that task is often fraught with frustration. How does one tell a black-billed ...
Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 07, 2006 ... ABDUCTED: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens SUSAN A. CLANCY Polls suggest that more than 90 percent of people believe that extraterrestrials exist. A small but significant number of those people believe that they've been abducted by aliens. Clancy's ...
Greenhouse plants? Vegetation may produce methane.(This Week)
Jan 14, 2006; ... Lab tests suggest that a wide variety of plants may routinely do something that scientists had previously thought impossible--produce methane in significant quantities. Methane, like carbon dioxide, traps heat in Earth's atmosphere. Scientists have been studying natural sources ...
Masters of disaster: survey taps resilience of post-9/11 New York.(This Week)
Jan 14, 2006; ... In the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, rates of stress-related symptoms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) soared among survivors and emergency workers. Nonetheless, a large majority of people living in and around New York City ...
Little professor: ants rank as first true animal teachers.(This Week)
Jan 14, 2006; ... No insult intended to human teachers, but a research team in England says that the first clear demonstration of true teaching among other animals comes from a species without much of a brain--an ant. A variety of animals do things that onlookers learn to copy, but biologists ...
Faked finds: human stem cell work is discredited.(Woo Suk Hwang's research on stem cells)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006; ... DNA evidence indicates that South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang fabricated data in studies purporting to show that he had cloned human embryos and derived stem cells from them, Seoul National University investigators say. A March 12, 2004 Science paper vaulted Hwang to fame, but the DNA ...
Put down that fork: studies document hazards of obesity.(This Week)
Jan 14, 2006; ... Being overweight or obese in middle age hikes a person's risk of severe heart and kidney problems later in life, even in people whose blood pressure is normal, two new studies show. The reports provide empirical, if observational, evidence that carrying excess pounds causes long-term ...
The fat track: signals between cells keep creatures lean.(This Week)
Jan 14, 2006; ... Fat is a fact of life for creatures great and small, but researchers know little about why some stem cells transform into fat cells rather than, for example, muscle or bone. Now, a team of researchers has found a clue: A series of signals between cells that is common to insects and mammals ...
Life underfoot: microbial biodiversity takes surprising twist.(This Week)
Jan 14, 2006; ... To the naked eye, a tropical rainforest bursts impressively with biodiversity, and a desert is just as impressively short on it. But a new study suggests that at the microscopic level in soil, the situation is reversed. Dirt in a rainforest is a veritable desert of bacterial species, ...
Robo receptor: researchers engineer a brain ion channel to take its cues from light.(This Week)
Jan 14, 2006; ... Teasing apart the complex circuitry of the brain might someday proceed with the flip of a switch, now that scientists have invented a light-responsive version of a common class of cell-surface proteins. The design permits precise control over whether channels into neurons are opened or ...
The trouble with chasing a bee: radar struggles to track backyard bugs.
Jan 14, 2006; ... Randolf Menzel runs a sophisticated insect-neurobiology lab in Berlin, but he puzzled for years over how to follow a bee. "Running behind a bee doesn't help very much," he says. Racing along, an observer can keep a tiny spot against the sky in sight for a good distance, but sooner or later ...
Outer limits: solar system at the fringe.(Cover Story)
Jan 14, 2006; ... Planetary scientist Mike Brown has had plenty of practice finding objects at the fringes of the solar system. In sky images spaced an hour apart, he and his colleagues have identified several of the solar systems--most distant denizens, revealed by their motion relative to the background ...
First maternal care filmed in squid.(ZOOLOGY)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006 ... Cameras deep in the Pacific Ocean have unexpectedly recorded caring behavior by squid rooms. The remotely operated vehicle Tiburon has encountered five Gonatus onyx squids, each dragging along thousands of developing eggs, says Brad A. Seibel of the University of Rhode Island in ...
Sexual selection: Darwin does Jamaica.(BIOLOGY)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006 ... A study of Jamaicans dancing finds that some of Darwin's ideas about the evolution of animal courtship apply to people. Darwin himself suggested that dance has been shaped by sexual selection, an evolutionary process that favors showy traits, such as peacock tails, that attract mates. The ...
Hearing implant knows where it goes.(TECHNOLOGY)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006 ... Engineers out to improve the performance of cochlear implants have developed a version with sensors that may aid a surgeon in installing the device optimally. Cochlear implants can restore hearing to people with deafness caused by damage to vibration-sensing cells (SN: 12/10/05, ...
Stone Age Britons pay surprise visit.(ARCHAEOLOGY)(unearthing stone tools from roughly 700,000 years ago)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006 ... Scientists excavating ancient river sediment along England's southeastern coast have unearthed stone tools from roughly 700,000 years ago, the earliest evidence of human ancestors in northern Europe. A team led by Simon A. Parfitt of University College London found 32 pieces of ...
Fattening fears.(parents' safety concerns lead to kids being obese)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006 ... The more concerned parents are about neighborhood safety, the more likely their youngsters will be overweight, a new study finds. When pediatrician Julie C. Lumeng was working at an inner-city clinic in Boston, parents of overweight children often told her, "I can't send my kids ...
Transistors sprout inner forests.(nanotechnology)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006 ... Nanotechnologies for electronics come along all the time, but they're typically far from ready for the factory floor. Now, independent teams of researchers in Sweden and in Korea have combined a promising nanotechnology with conventional microelectronics to create novel transistors that ...
Musical therapy for sounder sleeping.(australian aboriginal music)(Brief Article)
Jan 14, 2006 ... Among the most distinctive sounds of Australian aboriginal music are the low drones of didgeridoos--long instruments made from termite-hollowed tree limbs. Alex Suarez, a Swiss didgeridoo instructor, noticed that since taking up the instrument, he and his students experienced less daytime ...
Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Usage of an Astonishing Substance.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 14, 2006 ... ICE: The Nature, the History, and the Usage of an Astonishing Substance MARIANA GOSNELL As a material, ice is a study in contradictions. It is at once as fragile as glass and stronger than steel, both solid and liquid, easily melted yet persistent in glaciers and ice flows that ...
Mountains From Space: Peaks and Ranges of the Seven Continents.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 14, 2006 ... MOUNTAINS FROM SPACE: Peaks and Ranges of the Seven Continents STEFAN DECH, REINHOLD MESSNER, RUDIGER GLASER, AND RALF-PETER MARTIN The lofty peaks of Earth's most majestic mountain ranges have traditionally been accessible only to the most daring and capable of climbers. But ...
The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 14, 2006 ... THE COLOSSAL BOOK OF SHORT PUZZLES AND PROBLEMS MARTIN GARDNER Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column for Scientific American has challenged and befuddled legions of readers for more than 25 years. Gardner has deftly and entertainingly explained concepts such as probability, ...
Secret Weapons: Defenses of Insects, Spiders, Scorpions, and Other Many-Legged Creatures.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 14, 2006 ... SECRET WEAPONS: Defenses of Insects, Spiders, Scorpions, and Other Many-Legged Creatures THOMAS EISNER, MARIA EISNER, AND MELODY SIEGLER Though small, insects and their relatives dominate Earth in sheer number. Over time, insects and other arthropods have employed various means ...
Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Jan 14, 2006 ... WARPED PASSAGES: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions LISA RANDALL Extra dimensions, wormholes, and parallel universes may sound like science fiction, but they are concepts being considered by physicists as a way to explain the mysteries of the universe ....
Alcohol calculus.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 14, 2006; ... "A toast to thin blood" (SN: 11/12/05, p. 317) says, "the blood of people who consume 3 to 6 drinks weekly was less likely to clot in a test tube than was the blood from nondrinkers." I wonder if there is a rebound effect that could make the blood of new abstainers even more ...
Albedo: abetted or abated?(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 14, 2006; ... "Runaway Heat" (SN: 11/12/05, p. 312) makes the point that shrub intrusion into tundra reduces albedo, the percentage of reflected light, but doesn't report actual impact on ground temperature. Albedo itself is not a good indicator of waste heat. Much of the extra absorbed sun energy is ...
Flying spaghetti mastered?(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 14, 2006; ... I would venture to suggest the reason that the pasta-fragmentation process stops ("That's the Way the Spaghetti Crumbles: Physicists solve a vexing kitchen puzzle" SN: 11/12/05, p. 315). Once the strand breaks, it becomes x number of new strands, each of which is still vibrating at some ...
Defenses down: mutation boosts West Nile risk.(genetic mutation )
Jan 21, 2006; ... A genetic mutation has been identified that increases a person's susceptibility to West Nile virus, a new study indicates. Ironically, this mutation had previously been shown to provide a barrier against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The protein eliminated by the mutation was ...
Cosmic push: finding pieces of a dark puzzle.(cosmic research)
Jan 21, 2006; ... Scientists call it the most elemental riddle in all of physics and astronomy: What's tearing apart the universe by turning gravity's familiar tug into a cosmic push? Astronomers discovered the handiwork of this mysterious push, dubbed dark energy, 8 years ago, when studies ...
Light on dark energy.(This Week)
Jan 21, 2006 ... NASA's Swift Satellite records gamma-ray bursts, rendered here by an artist, which a new study suggests ...
Dieting to save a species: mother parrots that eat less avoid excess of sons.(efforts to maintain birds male and female ratio)
Jan 21, 2006; ... Now that conservationists are counting calories for the endangered, flightless parrots of New Zealand, the birds are recovering from a shortage of female chicks, biologists report. The world population of the kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), a hefty, nocturnal parrot, numbers only ...
Diabetes from a plastic? Estrogen mimic provokes insulin resistance.(bisphenol-A, Miguel Hernandez University finding)
Jan 21, 2006; ... Exposure to small amounts of an ingredient in polycarbonate plastic may increase a person's risk of diabetes, according to a new study in mice. The synthetic chemical called bisphenol-A is used to make dental sealants, sturdy microwavable plastics, linings for metal ...
Intrinsic remedies for pain: placebo effect may take various paths in brain.
Jan 21, 2006; ... The brain draws on a range of pain-fighting options when people receive sham treatments for pain, a new brain-imaging study suggests. People who experienced pain relief after receiving fake acupuncture treatments displayed pronounced activity in certain brain areas, says a team ...
Pay dirt: cometary dust collector comes home.(Stardust )(Brief Article)
Jan 21, 2006; ... Streaking through Earth's atmosphere after a 7-year, 5.6-billion-kilometer journey, a space capsule carrying comet and interstellar dust landed in the Utah desert on Jan. 15. NASA's Stardust spacecraft collected its most precious cargo 2 years ago, when the craft passed within 24 km of the ...
Thermonuclear squeeze: altered method extends bubble-fusion claim.(This Week)
Jan 21, 2006; ... A technique that some scientists claim generates thermonuclear fusion in a benchtop apparatus works even without its controversial neutron trigger. So say the researchers who, since 2002, have reported that nuclear-fusion reactions can occur in a vat of chilled solvent agitated by ...
Sinking Mercury: light-based reactions destroy toxic chemical in Arctic lakes.(This Week)
Jan 21, 2006; ... Sunlight triggers the entry of poisonous mercury into polar lakes, but it also removes most of the toxic compound before fish can consume it, a new study suggests. The researchers warn that increased warming in the Arctic might upset this delicate balance. With spring, light ...
Light cleaning.(Arctic lakes protected by photochemical reactions)(Brief Article)
Jan 21, 2006; ... Photochemical reactions in clear Arctic lakes prevent ...
In pixels and in health: computer modeling pushes the threshold of medical research.
Jan 21, 2006; ... Moment by moment, a movie captures the action as a group of immune cells scrambles to counter an invasion of tuberculosis bacteria. Rushing to the site of infected lung tissue, the cells build a complex sphere of active immune cells, dead immune cells, lung tissue, and trapped bacteria ....
Is anybody out there? Detection devices are in the works for rooting out extraterrestrial life.(Cold Region Research and Engineering Laboratory Permafrost Tunnel, Alaska)
Jan 21, 2006; ... In the mid-1960s, the United States Army Corps of Engineers carved a giant cave deep into permafrost in an Alaskan hillside so that scientists could do experiments inside ground that had been frozen for millennia. Entering the 110- meter Cold Region Research and Engineering Laboratory ...
Getting a read on early Maya writing.(ARCHAEOLOGY)(Brief Article)
Jan 21, 2006 ... Researchers excavating the ruins of an ancient pyramid in northeastern Guatemala have discovered examples of the earliest known Maya writing, produced between 300 B.C. and 200 B.C. The discovery shows that the Maya developed a writing system at around the same time as script ...
Cranberry aid for assay.(urinary-tract infections, cranberry juice )(Brief Article)
Jan 21, 2006 ... Cranberry juice, often used to stave off urinary-tract infections caused by Escherichia coli, also keeps the bacteria from reducing a biosensor's specificity, scientists report. Past research had shown that cranberry juice fights the infections by stopping E. coli from adhering ...
Making waves.(MATERIALS SCIENCE)(Brief Article)
Jan 21, 2006 ... Flexible silicon is no longer an oxymoron. Scientists have created thin, wavy silicon ribbons that stretch along with their rubber backing. The technique could lead to comfortable, sensor-filled uniforms that monitor a soldier's vital signs or to electric devices that can wrap around ...
Gravity at play.(ASTRONOMY)(Brief Article)
Jan 21, 2006 ... Astronomers are delighted to have found 19 galaxies that appear to be bent out of shape. The distorted images are cosmic mirages, arcs or rings of light created when the gravity of a massive foreground object bends and magnifies the light from a galaxy lying behind it. Albert Einstein ...
Hubble spots North Star companion.(POLARIS PARTNER)(Brief Article)
Jan 21, 2006 ... Old drawings portray the North Star, Polaris, as a solitary beacon of light. But the star, which generations of seafarers have relied on for navigation, has two stellar companions, as indicated by Polaris' motion. One of the stars has been visible to astronomers for centuries, but the ...