Science News back issues from May 2009:
With science at its best, answers raise questions.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
May 09, 2009; ... Birds and bees, ants and plants are among the most familiar--and most well-studied scientifically--life-forms on the planet. You'd think that if you wanted to know something about how any of them work, you'd go look it up in a book (excuse me, I meant the Internet). But whether ...
Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Professor Bennett G. Galef Jr.)(Quotation)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009; ... "As I have told my students ... I view a life in science as a marathon, not as a sprint. My goal is to ask simple questions arising from clearly stated hypotheses, to use both simple experimental designs and transparent statistical analyses, to proceed one step at a time, experiment after ...
Science past: from the issue of May 9, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(global warming forecast)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009 ... FORECAST 25% INCREASE IN AIR'S CARBON DIOXIDE--A 25% increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere during the 150-year period ending in 2000 A.D. has been forecast. Dr. Bert Bolin of the University of Stockholm in Sweden told the National Academy of Sciences meeting in ...
Science stats: females tested more than males.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)
May 09, 2009 ... Percentage of U.S. adults age 18 and older who have ever been tested ...
Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(fairs; contests)(Brief article)(Calendar)
May 09, 2009 ... May 10 Winners of the "Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest" announced in Naples, Fla. View entries at illusioncontest. neuralcorrelate.com May 10-15 Intel International Science ...
Earth.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(iron in water)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009 ... Iron in water seeping from an underground ecosystem takes on a rusty hue as it oxidizes (below). Surprisingly hearty life forms use the ...
Body & brain.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(urine test may predict lung cancer risk)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009 ... High levels of tobacco-related compounds that show up in urine could identify which cigarette smokers are most likely to develop ...
Introducing....(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Tabuina varirata the jumping spider)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009 ... Not only is this jumping spider a new species, it's also unusual enough to justify naming a new genus. Called Tabuina varirata, the species belongs on one of the sparser, more isolated branches of the spider family tree, reports Wayne Maddison in Zootaxa. Maddison, director of the Beaty ...
Landscaper's darling hybridizes into an environmental nuisance: variation underlies the Callery pear tree's transformation.(STORY ONE)
May 09, 2009; ... As in other tales of nice kids gone wrong, the Callery pear tree's troubles can be traced to a gang of new pals, a new genetic analysis suggests. Imported from China, the Callery pear won U.S. hearts and yards coast to coast for its early spring clouds of white blossoms. The ...
Back story: costs of invasives.(IN THE NEWS)(Table)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009 ... <Pre> Back Story | COSTS OF INVASIVES The Gallery pear tree is among some 50,000 foreign species of all sorts that have moved into the United States, some intentionally, some not. Europe's latest count reveals at least 10,000. A small percentage of invasives prove to be a noticeable ...
Brash birds get nabbed more often: personality may affect which flycatchers end up in the lab.(Life)
May 09, 2009; ... Who knows whether birds have their own snarky personality jokes. But researchers now say collared flycatchers with a dashing and curious character are especially likely to get caught in researchers' traps. The trappable birds readily explore novelties and take risks in the ...
Arthropods came ashore in shells: gear may have kept gills wet during transition onto land.(Life)
May 09, 2009; ... Some of the first creatures to leave the ocean and venture onto land may have done so by carrying a bit of the sea with them. Fossil trackways left on ancient tidal flats 500 million years ago hint that some ocean-dwelling arthropods, like today's hermit crabs, hauled out onto land wearing ...
Oddities in rod cells may help with night sight: nocturnal mammals invert retinal DNA arrangement.(Life)
May 09, 2009; ... Mice and cats don't usually agree, but both animals have the same bright idea about night vision. Cats, rats, mice and other nocturnal mammals arrange DNA in some eye cells to form miniature lenses that help focus light, a new study shows. Scientists at the Ludwig-Maximilians ...
Lizards bask for more than warmth.(Life)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009; ... A lounging lizard might not bask just for warmth--it may be getting a much-needed hit of vitamin D. A new study reports that panther chameleons (one shown) set their sunbathing schedule depending on how much vitamin D they need. The new work, published in the May/June Physiological and ...
Other, friendly fat present in adult humans: brown fat could help keep people warm and slender.(Body & Brain)
May 09, 2009; ... In the ongoing battle of the bulge, maybe it is time to fight fat with fat. Three studies in the April 9 New England Journal of Medicine show that some adult humans have brown fat, an energy-burning type of fat previously thought to be found only in animals and human babies. All together, ...
Acid reflux link to asthma in doubt: heartburn drugs may not help patients with severe attacks.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009; ... Taking heartburn drugs doesn't reduce severe attacks among asthma patients, researchers report in the April 9 New England Journal of Medicine. The findings cast doubt on a long-held assumption that even unnoticed acid reflux exacerbates asthma. Many doctors prescribe proton pump ...
Hypoglycemia linked to dementia: severe low blood sugar episodes might heighten risk later.(Body & Brain)
May 09, 2009; ... A single episode of low blood sugar severe enough to require prompt medical attention increases a person's risk of developing dementia in old age, a study in people with diabetes suggests. More than one bout of hypoglycemia seems to heighten the risk even further, researchers report in the ...
Undetectable sensor would still see: new cloaking method may allow signals to be sent, received.(Matter & Energy)
May 09, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cell phones, radio receivers and GPS devices may one day go incognito. In a paper to appear in Physical Review Letters, Nader Engheta and Andrea Alu propose a new cloaking method that would cancel out electromagnetic waves bouncing off an object. The ...
Double-laser approach leads to one thin line: erasing, stenciling offer new nanolithography techniques.(Matter & Energy)
May 09, 2009; ... Michelangelo couldn't have chiseled David's features with the edge of a backhoe. But just such a challenge faces scientists working in the infinitesimally small world of nanolithography, the ultratiny writing used to make computer chips, solar cells and other devices. Now three reports, ...
Nanoclusters battle second law: in simulations, collisions can increase velocity, reduce entropy.(Matter & Energy)
May 09, 2009; ... Nobody's above the law. But tiny clusters of colliding atoms may duck below the second law of thermodynamics. In simulations, researchers in Japan found that in rare cases, tiny clusters of atoms ricochet off each other faster than their approaching speeds. The results, in the March ...
Drop in oceanic nickel may have set stage for atmospheric oxygen: banded iron formations point to changes in early seawater.(Earth)
May 09, 2009; ... A decrease in the amount of dissolved nickel in ocean waters beginning 2.7 billion years ago could have stifled methane-producing bacteria and set the scene for oxidation of the Earth's atmosphere, researchers report in the April 9 Nature. Billions of years ago, ...
Less, thinner Arctic ice.(Earth)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The spring melting of the Arctic Ocean's ice cap has already begun, and data suggest that the ice is more vulnerable than ever: The ocean area covered by ice is one of the lowest ever measured by satellites, and a record ...
Solar flares now trackable in 3-D: craft positioning improves imaging of mass ejections.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
May 09, 2009; ... WASHINGTON -- For the first time, scientists can accurately assess the size, shape and speed of massive flares as they leave the sun, allowing better estimates of when the flares might strike Earth and cause widespread electrical disruptions. Since early 2007, NASA researchers ...
Swarm savvy: how bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions.
May 09, 2009; ... This is a phone conversation, so if Tom Seeley rolls his eyes, that's his business. He's a distinguished behavioral biologist, full professor at Cornell University, member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and so on. Yet he takes it pretty well when asked whether honeybees could ...
The genetic dimension of height and health: it may be no tall tale: a few inches taller or shorter could signal a risk for some diseases.
May 09, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From Danny Devito to Yao Ming, the world is filled with short people and tall people and everyone in between. While factors such as nutrition influence height differences, much of that variation depends on genes. After all, both of Ming's parents were ...
Living physics: from green leaves to bird brains, biological systems may exploit quantum phenomena.
May 09, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Until a century or so ago, nobody had any idea that the re even was such a thing as quantum physics. But while humans operated for millennia in quantum darkness, it seems that plants, bacteria and birds may have been in the know all along. ...
Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution.(Book review)
May 09, 2009; ... Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution Adrian Desmond and James Moore While forming his theory of common descent, Charles Darwin peered beyond his observations of ants, barnacles and blue-footed boobies to try to ...
Bookshelf.(Nanoscale: Visualizing an Invisible World, The Fifth Postulate: How Unraveling a Two-Thousand-Year-Old Mystery Unraveled the Universe and Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 09, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nanoscale: Visualizing an Invisible World Kenneth S. Deffeyes and Stephen E. Deffeyes Illustrations reveal the nanoscale world in rich detail. MIT, 2009, 133 p., $21.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Fifth Postulate: How Unraveling a ...
Don't dismiss Lamarck.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
May 09, 2009; ... Your January 31 special birthday edition on Darwin (SN: 1/31/09, p. 17) was excellent, but I believe that science has allowed Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's contributions to be overshadowed by Darwin's. The change that can occur to an organism's genetic makeup during its own lifetime harks away ...
Charles Niederriter: at Nobel Conference, scientists and public converse.(COMMENT)(Interview)
May 09, 2009; ... Physics professor Charles Niederriter of Gustavus Adolphus College directs the Nobel Conference, an annual forum where scientists and the public discuss a contemporary scientific topic. Held every year at Gustavus Adolphus, in Saint Peter, Minn., this year's Nobel Conference, October 6-7, ...
Celebrating astronomy's illumination of the mind.(FROM THE EDITOR)
May 23, 2009; ... Astronomy is a special science. As the French mathematician Henri Poincare observed more than a century ago, it was astronomy that inspired the origins of science in general. In ancient times, people observing the night sky saw that its "multitude of luminous points is not a ...
Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Nathan Wolfe on viruses)(Quotation)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... We've created a "perfect storm" for viruses. And we'll continue to see--as we have in the past few years--a whole range of new animal diseases as outbreaks in human populations. But we have to stop being surprised by them. Right now, global public health is like cardiology in the ...
Science past: from the issue of MAY 23, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009 ... NUCLEAR-POWERED BLIMP--America's first nuclear-powered aircraft could very well be a huge blimp, about three rimes the size of those now being used by the U.S. Navy for submarine and plane spotting .... The blimp's length would be 540 feet, making it possible to locate the atomic ...
Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(calendar)(Brief article)(Calendar)
May 23, 2009 ... June 4-6 Organization for the Study of Sex Differences annual meeting in Toronto. See www.ossdweb.org June 6 The annual ...
Atom & cosmos.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Messenger spacecraft)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009 ... The MESSENGER spacecraft sleuthed more clues about Mercury, including views of its second-largest known crater (below) and ...
Life.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)( hadrosaur)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009 ... Scientists recovered what they believe to be collagen, bone cells and other soft tissue from the ...
For daily use.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(sugarless gum can curd craving of sweets)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Chewing sugarless gum throughout the afternoon can curb consumption and craving of sweets and make people feel more energetic and alert through the p.m. doldrums, scientists reported April 19 at the Experimental Biology meeting in New Orleans. The new ...
Science stat: status of U.S. birds.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)
May 23, 2009 ... PERCENT CHANGE IN U.S. BIRD POPULATIONS BASED ON TRENDS FOR SOME ...
Males, females swap sex-role stereotypes: analysis finds that mating strategies are not universal.(STORY ONE)(Report)
May 23, 2009; ... Chuck that nonsense about "men are from Mars, women are from Venus." Here on Earth, the sexes play the mating game with a flexible set of rules. A new study suggests that scientists should abandon the idea that males evolved to be promiscuous and females to be selective. ...
Back story: let's talk about sex roles, in theory.(IN THE NEWS)(Chronology)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1871 Charles Darwin proposes his theory of sexual selection, arguing that members of each sex within a species compete for resources and display traits most valued by mate-seeking members of the opposite sex. The evolution of the male peacock ...
Birds bust a move to musical beats: studies suggest vocal mimics have a flair for moving in time.(Life)
May 23, 2009; ... Don't begrudge Snowball his hankering for boybands. The sulfur-crested cockatoo with a spiky haircut bobs his head, sways his body and stomps his feet in time to the beat of pop songs such as the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody." Two new studies, published online April 30 and slated ...
Oops, botanists missed that tree: newly found acacia common in Ethiopia's Ogaden region.(Life)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... Botanists couldn't see the forest or the trees. An acacia in eastern Africa that grows up to 6 meters tall and dominates the landscape across an area almost three rimes the size of Rhode Island is new to science. "It's astounding," says David Mabberley of the Royal Botanic ...
Yeast bred to bear artificial vanilla: scientists co-opt fungi to produce flavor more efficiently.(Genes & Cells)
May 23, 2009; ... A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and now, vanilla. Yeast has long been pressed into service for making food and drink, and now scientists have recruited the fungus for a loftier flavor: vanillin, vanilla's dominant compound. Scientists report in the May Applied and Environmental ...
A good look at mimi.(Genes & Cells)(mimivirus)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... Scientists have zoomed in on mimivirus, the enormous virus with the delicate name that has perplexed researchers since its discovery in 1992. Its size (its diameter is more than 10 times that of the virus that causes the common cold) and its hodgepodge of genetic and structural traits blur ...
DNA comparison of Africa's ethnic groups quantifies genetic diversity: differences could reveal details of modern human origins.(Humans)
May 23, 2009; ... The largest genetic study of African populations reveals a greater diversity among the continent's cultural groups than previously known, scientists say. The study also offers insight into the origins of modern humans and the ancestry of African-Americans, researchers said in an April 29 ...
Exoplanets keep getting smaller: object orbiting red dwarf may be as light as 2 Earths.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... Inching ever closer to the goal of discovering a planet just like home, astronomers have found the smallest extrasolar planet ever detected. A mere 20.5 light-years away, the object could be as tiny as 1.9 Earth masses and is unlikely to exceed four Earths. Because the planet ...
Monster blob on a feeding frenzy: body may be early galaxy caught in the act of forming.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... Quick, Marge, call the Cosmic Enquirer! Astronomers have discovered a monster blob lurking at the universe's edge. The blob may be the earliest known galaxy to be caught in the act of a feeding frenzy. The giant parcel of gas and stars stretches for 55,000 light-years, a little ...
New weapon helps fight hepatitis C: experimental drug on its way to joining standard medications.(Body & Brain)(telaprevir)
May 23, 2009; ... A new drug works with a standard hepatitis C drug combination to clear the virus from patients' blood substantially better than the existing treatment alone, new studies suggest. "As far as these patients are concerned, they're pretty much cured," says John McHutchison, a ...
Contraceptives and muscle gains.(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... NEW ORLEANS -- Some female athletes may pay a price for using oral contraception: lower strength gains from resistance exercises, which include lifting weights or working against tension bands and bars. Personal trainers have long noted that all women don't garner the same ...
Signals of impending violence.(psychiatric patients )(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... Swift swings in symptom intensity may peg psychiatric patients on the verge of threatening or hurting others. Employing a statistical technique, new work shows that among psychiatric patients with documented histories of committing violent acts, those whose symptoms of emotional ...
New neurons don't heal.(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... Rubbernecking neurons don't do an injured brain any good. Newborn neurons rush to the scene of brain damage but don't pitch in to help heal the wound, a new study shows. Scientists have had hopes that new neurons produced in the brain after a stroke or other insult could migrate ...
Aerosols may have boosted carbon uptake: plant productivity could drop as skies continue to clear.(Earth)
May 23, 2009; ... The world's vegetation soaked up carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than it would have under a pristine atmosphere, an analysis in the April 23 Nature suggests. The trend hints that relying on forests and other vegetation to sequester carbon may not ...
Walking seal had otterlike body.(Earth)(fossilized skeleton of what researchers are calling a walking seal )(Brief article)
May 23, 2009; ... A fossilized skeleton of what researchers are calling a walking seal has been uncovered in the Canadian Arctic. The remains of this previously unknown mammal (fossil reconstruction shown) could shed light on the evolution of pinnipeds, the group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses, ...
Gazing deeper still: four hundred years ago, Galileo and his telescope brought the heavens into focus, setting the stage for modern astronomy.(YEAR OF ASTRONOMY)
May 23, 2009; ... Such a small thing, really--two pieces of glass and a tube no longer than the span of a man's arm. The first telescope that Galileo built (and I don't mean he was the first to build one, for surely he wasn't) played tricks with distance and size. The device transported faraway objects into ...
Seeing better: in 400 years, telescopes advance from rooftops to mountains to orbit.(YEAR OF ASTRONOMY)(Chronology)
May 23, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1608 Invention of the telescope. Claimed by Dutch lensmaker Hans ...
Beyond Galileo's universe: astronomers grapple with cosmic puzzles both dark and light.(YEAR OF ASTRONOMY)
May 23, 2009; ... Four hundred years ago, astronomy embraced all that was visible. For Galileo, looking through his primitive telescope, the vistas included jewel-like stars, mountains on the moon, moons orbiting Jupiter and the glow of comet tails. Today astronomy is often about what cannot be ...
New eyes on the cosmos: the next constellation of telescopes will dramatically extend and sharpen scientists' view of the universe.(YEAR OF ASTRONOMY)
May 23, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Galileo began pointing spyglasses toward the heavens--scanning methodically, classifying what he observed--he started a trend. Four centuries later, telescopes from the huge to the massive peer at the skies with an array of technologies. They look up ...
The Day We Found the Universe.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 23, 2009; ... The Day We Found the Universe Marcia Bartusiak [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Until January 1, 1925, the Milky Way might have been alone. That day, astronomers learned that the universe extends at least a million light-years and the faint lights observed by the ...
Bookshelf.(Astronomical Spectrographs and their History)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 23, 2009 ... Astronomical Spectrographs and their History John Hearnshaw [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Astronomers have used these instruments to explore the heavens since the 19th century. Cambridge Univ., 2009, 240 p., $140 The Crowded ...
Enjoy the indelible experience of emulating Galileo.(COMMENT)
May 23, 2009; ... I was tickled when Rick Fienberg, then editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, stood up at a special session at the August 2006 meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, grabbed the microphone and proclaimed that every person on Earth should look at the night sky through a ...