Science News articles from August 2008

Science News archives from August 2008

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Quotation)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... "[Dr.] Frankenstein is so incredibly courageous and ambitious as to want to find the secret of life. He works very hard and with great imagination, and he tragically fails.... Sherlock Holmes is the opposite of romantic, and he never fails. He...

Science past: 50 years ago.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... From Science News Letter, August 2, 1958 PORCUPINES GNAWED ON STONE AGE MAN'S TOOLS--Razor sharp edges on some of the bone chisels of Middle Stone Age man in Africa were found to have been put there by the needle-sharp front teeth of...

The (-est).(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Solar and Heliospheric Observatory )(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory discovered its 1,500th comet in late June, making it the best comet catcher--more successful than all others combined. Because SOHO sits between the Earth and the sun, it sees an area of space usually...

SN online: www.sciencenews.org.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... SN TODAY Read current science news stories, updated daily. Access stories not seen elsewhere, such as Ron Cowen's coverage of evidence that one of Saturn's moons (pictured below) may host an underground ocean. Visit the Atom & Cosmos topic...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)(Calendar)
August 2, 2008... August 16-24 Australia celebrates National Science Week. Visit www.scienceweek.info.au September 18 and 19 University of Wisconsin-Madison's Holtz Center presents "Climate Change is Global." Visit sts.wisc.edu October 8 ...

Astrocytes are rising stars of the brain: cells regulate blood flow and make fMRI possible.(STORY ONE)(functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
August 2, 2008... Star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes are finally getting their chance to shine. Two groups of researchers--one at MIT, the other at Harvard--have shown that astrocytes get the blood pumping to parts of the brain that are thinking...

Messages from Mercury: flyby reveals clues to volcanism, magnetism.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... Mercury, the solar system's forgotten planet, is finally getting its place in the sun. Data from the January flyby of the spacecraft MESSENGER--which will begin a year-long orbit of Mercury in 2011--has revealed the origin of the planet's...

Voyager 2 reports from the edge: bubble surrounding solar system seems to be lopsided.(Atom & Cosmos)
August 2, 2008... There are no signs to announce the edge of the solar system, but when the venerable Voyager 2 spacecraft approached this final frontier last August 31, it was in for quite a shock. So were the scientists who analyzed the data radioed back to...

Dopamine's role linked to location: desire and dread separated by mere millimeters.(Body & Brain)
August 2, 2008... Dopamine conducts a frenzied song of craving at one end of a tiny brain region and a panic-stricken hymn at the other. Depending on where along the length of the region the neurotransmitter is triggered, it mediates emotions ranging from desire...

Stem cells aid weak muscles: transplants in mice help ameliorate genetic defect.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... Skeletal muscle stem cell transplants can rebuild brawn in mice with faulty muscle-making genes, a new study finds. The finding, reported in the July 11 Cell, offers hope that one day skeletal muscle stem cells from healthy people could be...

Feminization blamed on farming: agricultural chemicals suspected in cane toad troubles.(Environment)
August 2, 2008... Among toads living in farm country, gents tend to resemble the gals--both inside and out. This doesn't bode well for the hoppers impressing local ladies, much less fathering their tadpoles. Toads and other amphibians throughout the world...

Now available in color: fossils: pigment may have been preserved in feathers.(Life)
August 2, 2008... Researchers have found what maybe remnants of pigment in fossilized feathers, opening the possibility of reconstructing the colors of many long-extinct animals. Dark stripes in a 100-million-year-old fossilized feather contain particles...

Cuttlefish embryos look and learn: before hatching, young acquire interest in crab dinners.(Life)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... Cuttlefish could be the first animals shown to learn visually before birth or hatching, researchers say. Cuttlefish embryos develop in eggs that stretch and become translucent. Embryos with crabs nearby hatch into youngsters with a...

The wandering fish eye.(Life)(fossils of primitive flatfish )(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... A new look at the fossils of primitive flatfish reveals that these fish--well-known for having both eyes on one side of their heads--started out symmetrical and gradually evolved their off-kilter trait. Scientists knew that the fish's earliest...

Frogbuilding ... first the toes, then the legs: development appears out of order in coqui frog.(Life)
August 2, 2008... A small frog appears to jump-start its skeletal development, turning on genes for building feet and toes before bothering to build its legs. While researchers are still trying to figure out how a clump of cells becomes a wing, flipper or...

It all began with a single crack: crumbling, not just incline, spurs a slab avalanche.(Earth)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... Forecasting a snow avalanche takes more than measuring the angle of a mountain slope, researchers report in the July 11 Science. Whether an avalanche happens might also depend on how the snow cracks and collapses, the study suggests. "The...

Apollo rocks show traces of water: study may shed light on moon formation and evolution.(Earth)
August 2, 2008... A new analysis of moon rocks has revealed that the moon isn't as bone dry as researchers had thought, whetting the appetite of scientists who seek a deeper understanding of how Earth's natural satellite arose and evolved. Because the moon...

Tiny diamonds may set earlier date for first life: carbon isotope ratios suggest biological activity.(Earth)
August 2, 2008... Microdiamonds embedded in ancient zircons found in Western Australia suggest that life may have existed on Earth as early as 4.25 billion years ago. Chemical analyses indicate that the mini-gems contain higher-than-average concentrations...

Rock finds suggest unlikely neighbors.(Earth)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... About 800 million years ago, East Antarctica, one of the coldest regions on Earth today, abutted what is now Death Valley, Calif. Both locales were then part of a supercontinent called Rodinia, says John Goodge of the University of Minnesota...

Strategies for fighting aging can be complex: resveratrol, low-cal diets don't work the same way.(Genes & Cells)
August 2, 2008... A substance found in red wine and touted as the chemical equivalent of the fountain of youth probably acts more like a well-spring of health--with warning signs. Resveratrol, as the chemical is known, does a pretty good job mimicking some...

Two paths to longer life overlap: study identifies proteins that may play key roles in longevity.(Genes & Cells)(Brief article)
August 2, 2008... Eating a calorie-restricted diet and being female are the best bets for living longer, at least for animals. Now scientists have discovered possible links between the two. To find out whether these two scenarios share molecular mechanisms,...

DNA, Jim, but not as we know it: unnatural genetic letters build stronger double helix.(Molecules)(Deoxyribonucleic acid)
August 2, 2008... If aliens have DNA, it might look something like this. Chemists have synthesized a DNA-like molecule using unnatural versions of the A, T, C and G "letters" that make up the genetic code. The resulting molecule has greater structural...

Finding the golden genes: advances in gene therapy could tempt some athletes to enhance their genetic makeup, leading some researchers to work on detection methods just in case.(Cover story)
August 2, 2008... In early August--8/8/08, to be precise--the curtain will rise on what many experts believe could prove to be the first genetically modified Olympics. For the unscrupulous or overdriven Olympic athlete, the banned practice of "doping" by...

Insightful light: Raman spectroscopy may offer doctors, dentists and forensic scientists a better tool for molecular detection.
August 2, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From CT, PET and MRI to the original X, a vast alphabetical arsenal of tools tells doctors what is going on inside the body. But despite their successes, these tools often fail to detect the subtle changes that...

Decoding the quantum mystery: signals from space to Earth could establish the reality of Einstein's worst fear.(Essay)
August 2, 2008... Every true fan of science fiction (and science too, for that matter) should be familiar with Forbidden Planet, the film famous for introducing the world to Robby the Robot. The story takes place in the 23rd century on Altair-4, where the...

Iridescent shortcut.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 2, 2008... I was disappointed with your diagram of a Morpho wing in the June 7 issue ("How they shine," SN: 6/7/08, p. 26). Rather than properly show different wavelengths of light interfering differently, you instead chose to cheat by keeping the...

Mature, or just dead.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 2, 2008... The article "Forest invades tundra" (SN: 7/5/08, p. 26) was very interesting, informative and disturbing. But just one note on the photo caption on Page 26. The tree indicated as "mature" may more accurately be described as dead. It appears...

Voice from the past.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 2, 2008... Now that I've seen the first four of the new Science News biweekly issues, I am way overdue in offering my congratulations. The new layout and design is crisp, professional and attractive; the content is as good as ever; and the whole product...

Simpleminded voters.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 2, 2008... In modeling there are several phases. Once the model is constructed, it is validated, which means its predictions are compared to real-world data. If there are discrepancies, they are investigated and the model is revised to make the...

Kudos for epigenetics article.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 2, 2008... I would like to congratulate Tina Hesman Saey on her feature article about epigenetics ("Epic genetics," SN: 5/24/08, p. 14). She has conveyed, most lucidly, the fundamentals of a complex concept. As a science writer she has admirably inserted...

Science and government.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 2, 2008... Although I am in complete agreement with Steven Hyman in his June 7 column ("U.S. science policy needs to heed global realities," SN: 6/7/08, p. 32), he barely scratches the surface with his observations on stem cell research. The depth of...

Vapor breath.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 2, 2008... Our breath is more than 99 percent water? ("Every breath you make tells of all your aches," SN: 7/5/08, p. 5.) No wonder I'm so thirsty! But I'm curious--how do our bodies use all that nitrogen we breathe in but apparently not out? BILL...

Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 2, 2008... Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science Richard Preston [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Preston's style of journalism, he says, is the equivalent of climbing into a boiling pot to better...

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 2, 2008... The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives Leonard Mlodinow [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] People like to think they understand their world. They seek explanations for things that go well and excuses for failures. "To swim...

Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 2, 2008... Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology Oren Harman and Michael R. Dietrich (eds.) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Stories about the iconoclasts who changed their fields by challenging assumptions. Yale Univ. Press, 2008, 416 p,...

Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 2, 2008... Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa Robert Paarlberg [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An argument that opposition to farm science hurts the poor. Harvard Univ. Press, 2008, 235 p., $24.95.

The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their Patients.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 2, 2008... The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their Patients Lucy H. Spelman and Ted Y. Mashima (eds.) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Personal essays from more than two dozen dedicated veterinarians who...

The Woman Who Can't Forget.(SN BOOKSHELF)
August 2, 2008... The Woman Who Can't Forget Jill Price [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The memoir from an ordinary woman with an extraordinary memory. Simon & Schuster, 2008, 263 p., $26.

The Handy Anatomy Answer Book.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 2, 2008... The Handy Anatomy Answer Book Naomi E. Balaban and James E. Bobick [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The reference book for all the major body systems, organized through a series of questions and answers. Visible Ink Press, 2008, 376 p.,...

World Science Summit: Science should be prominent in U.S. foreign policy.(COMMENT)
August 2, 2008... On May 28, the World Science Summit held in New York City convened an assembly of prominent scientists to discuss some of the critical issues at the interface between science and society. One of the panel discussions at the summit addressed the...

It's a heavy burden to report on heavy water.(Editorial)
August 16, 2008... If you pay attention in school, you can learn a lot about science. Surely you remember, for example, that hydrogen is the simplest atom--a single proton surrounded by a single electron. And that hydrogen has a heavier form, with the proton...

Scientific observations.(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Those discoveries that most change the way we think about nature cannot be anticipated.... Beware of subtle, unexplained behavior; don't dismiss it. Frequently nature does not knock with a very loud sound but rather...

Science past: 50 years ago: from Science News letter, August 16, 1958.(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... WATERBIRDS DISPOSSESSED--Marshes, swamps and wetlands throughout the United States are on their way out. Going with them are hundreds of our waterbirds. Ducks, geese, herons, grebes, coots and many other birds that depend on wetlands for...

Science future.(Brief article)(Calendar)
August 16, 2008... September 10-13 First International Ragweed Conference in Budapest. Visit www.nki.hu/ragweed September 15 An Evening with Frank Wilczek: The Lightness of Being. Reception and book signing by the physics Nobel laureate at the New...

SN today.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)
August 16, 2008... Learn what a deep-ocean survey found off Ireland's coast in "Seafloor chronicles" in the Earth section.

Math trek.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China)(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... In designing the National Aquatics Center in Beijing, newly built for the Olympics, architects tapped advanced mathematics to make the building look like froth. See "A building of bubbles" by Julie Rehmeyer. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Science & the public.(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... Policy writer and SN blogger Janet Raloff offers a nuanced discussion of animal rights activism in "Animal rights and wrongs," and she also gives us the skinny on trans fats in "This trans fat is vindicated."

Science stats.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... GENDER DRUG GAP Percentage of U.S. 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders who admit to using illicit drugs in the past 30 days, by gender M=male F=Female Percent 8th Grade 10th Grade 12th Grade Male 7.5% ...

The (-est).(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... The (-est): The brightest star in the galaxy, Eta Carinae (shown), now faces a tough competitor. The Peony nebula star, which researchers scrutinized with the help of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, blazes with the light of 3.2 million suns....

Fatal attraction: nanomagnets tackle disease: technique uses heat to kill cancerous cells.(In the News: STORY ONE)(Clinical report)
August 16, 2008... A new wave of therapies can exert a magnetic hold over disease--literally. The therapies employ powerful, roughly spherical magnets to help kill carefully targeted diseased cells and nothing else. What makes these magnets special is their size....

Back story: magnetism, then and now.(Chronology)
August 16, 2008... ca. 575 B.C. Thales of Miletus argues that magnets' power to move things must mean they are alive. 1269 Frenchman Peter Peregrinus writes a major treatise on magnets, assigning poles to a lodestone. 1600 English...

Quantum effects make [H.sub.2]O weird: bond lengths are different in heavy, light water molecules.(Matter & Energy)
August 16, 2008... Heavy water is not just heavier. Swapping each H in [H.sub.2]O with a D--hydrogen's isotope deuterium--changes water's properties. The deuterium version is mildly poisonous, and its freezing point is 4[degrees] Celsius, instead of O[degrees]C....

Spotting the smallest atoms.(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... No room is left at the bottom: A team of physicists has used a transmission electron microscope to spot single hydrogen atoms--the smallest atoms of them all. Previously, such microscopes had trouble imaging single atoms lighter than carbon....

Protein links metabolism to clock: work could lead to drugs for obesity, aging and jet lag.(Body & Brain)
August 16, 2008... Cue stomach rumbles SIRT1 sets internal clock To metabolism Timing is everything, especially when it comes to basic biological functions such as eating, sleeping and liver activity. Scientists have known for ages that metabolism is tied to...

29.7 million.(Body & Brain)
August 16, 2008... The number of people in the United States taking statins in 2005; that number increased from 15.8 million in 2000

Go against the grains, diet study suggests: low-carb beats low-fat in weight loss, cholesterol.(Body & Brain)(Clinical report)
August 16, 2008... Talk about taking a hit in the breadbasket. A new study finds that a low-carb diet results in greater weight loss and better cholesterol than a low-fat regimen that promotes a lot of grains and fruits. A Mediterranean diet yielded results...

Asthma oddity.(Clinical report)
August 16, 2008... Children infected with a common stomach bacterium are less likely to have asthma than other kids, according to a study in the Aug. 15 Journal of Infectious Diseases. Microbiologist Martin Blaser of New York University and colleague Yu Chen...

Viagra for women.(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... A new study in the July 23/30 Journal of the American Medical Association suggests Viagra, well known for treating male impotence, can relieve sexual difficulties in women caused by antidepressant use. Women on serotonin reuptake inhibitors who...

Statin snag.(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... Cholesterol-reducing drugs called statins do their job with remarkable efficiency, but in rare cases they can cause serious muscle pain, called myopathy. In the August 21 New England Journal of Medicine, researchers will report the discovery of...

Bumblebees deliver disease: hitchhiking pathogens threaten wild populations.(Life)(Report)
August 16, 2008... Bumblebees sneak out from work, too, and fugitives buzzing away from their greenhouse jobs could contribute to pollinator declines. Greenhouse growers use bumblebees for crops that need what's called "buzz pollination," a strong vibration...

Molecule makes magnetic sense: cryptochrome could help explain animal orientation.(Life)
August 16, 2008... Scientists have identified a molecule that fruit flies need to sense magnetic fields. It is the first time this molecule has been linked conclusively to magnetic sensitivity in any animal, researchers say online July 20 in Nature. The...

Fangs sprang from one source: embryos disclose history of snake venom delivery.(Life)(Report)
August 16, 2008... "How'd you get those newfangled teeth?" hissed the petite garter snake to the venomous cobra. "Same way that you got yours," cobra replied. All fangs--no matter their size, shape or position--descend from a single evolutionary event, new...

Death to dodder.(Life)(Report)
August 16, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The parasitic plant known as dodder really sucks. The vine (shown wrapped around a green stem) pierces the tissue of other plants, extracting water and nutrients. But it also consumes molecules that scientists could...

Toddler worldview shifts at age 2: study looks at leap in object recognition and thinking.
August 16, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Something extraordinary happens between 18 and 24 months of age. Toddlers take giant strides in their ability to visually inspect, recognize and manipulate items, putting the kids on par with adults given comparable tasks. To...

No counting necessary: people track quantities even when distracted.(Humans)(Brief article)
August 16, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Shhh. Listen--that's the sound of people keeping track of quantities without using or thinking of number words. English speakers can identify small numbers of items even as they perform a task that interferes with counting,...

Built for speed: animals would prove fierce competitors at the Olympics--if only they would stay in their lanes.(Cover story)
August 16, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At 8 a.m., before the day turns shirt-clinging muggy, bystanders gather in hopes of seeing some of the world's really fast runners, soon to appear on the outdoor course for training sprints. A boy a bit bigger than...

Neuron killers: misfolded, clumping proteins evade conviction, but they remain prime suspects in neurodegenerative diseases.
August 16, 2008... As open-and-shut cases go, Alzheimer's disease should top the list. The victim is clear. Suspects are in custody. Wherever neurons die due to Alzheimer's disease, a protein known as amyloid-beta is always found at the scene of the crime,...

Welcome to the quantum internet: quantum encryption is here, but the laws of physics can do much more than protect privacy.
August 16, 2008... A stylish new way of surfing the Internet is coming to Vienna this fall. Researchers plan to flip the switch on the next step toward a quantum version of the Internet. They will build a network allowing users to send each other messages as...

Starry details.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 16, 2008... The article "Astronomers find distant star with a whole set of superEarths" (SN: 7/05/08, p. 7) leaves out some of the most interesting and important information. Is HD 40307 a G-type star like our sun? Which method was used to detect the...

Breaking the link.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 16, 2008... I have observed the link between serious disease and depression---discussed in "Sick and down" (SN: 7/19/08, p. 26)--in two elderly relatives, now deceased. It caused one to engage in self-destructive behaviors and the other to skip...

Planning for hazards.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
August 16, 2008... In regard to "Challenges to building a disaster-resilient nation" (SN: 6/21/08, p. 32), the South Carolina Emergency Management Division---from which I am now retired--and many state counties use Hazards United States Multihazard, or HAZUS-MH,...

The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Book review)
August 16, 2008... The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It By Robert Zimmerman [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "The truth is that what ordinary people really care about are things they can see, with...

Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 16, 2008... Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Watson Davis clipped a short article out of a newspaper on May 7, 1925. John Scopes...

The Encyclopedia of Earth: A Complete Visual Guide.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 16, 2008... The Encyclopedia of Earth: A Complete Visual Guide Michael Allaby, Robert Coenraads, Stephen Hutchinson, Karen McGhee and John O'Byrne [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The reference book for the planet, complete with thousands of...

Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 16, 2008... Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910 Stephen J. Pyne [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A former firefighter describes the destructive blazes that shaped forest-fire policy in the United States. Mountain Press...

One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
August 16, 2008... One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! Eric Yoder and Natalie Yoder [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With these short stories, kids ages 8 to 14 can have fun learning and solving puzzles. Science, Naturally!,...

The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Book review)(Brief review)
August 16, 2008... The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It Jonathan Zittrain [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Internet's openness nourishes innovators but also makes it vulnerable to abuse. Yale Univ. Press, 2008, 342 p., $30.

Primeval Kinship: How Pair-Bonding Gave Birth to Human Society.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 16, 2008... Primeval Kinship: How Pair-Bonding Gave Birth to Human Society Bernard Chapais [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An account of the evolutionary origins of human kinship, linking social and biological anthropology. Harvard Univ. Press,...

In communicating science, Europe envies the U.S.(Euroscience Open Forum)
August 16, 2008... On July 21, at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, members of the European astronomy community participated in a discussion about why their space program has failed to engage public interest in a manner comparable to programs in the United...

Dreaming of a day with no need for sleep.(FROM THE EDITOR)
August 30, 2008... A lot of the enchantment of science is the prospect it offers for making dreams come true. Imagine, for instance, a Nirvanaworld where science writers and editors work 24/7, pausing to eat now and then but never needing to sleep. ...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)( Louise Leakey on fossils)(Brief article)
August 30, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "If you want to become a fossil, you actually need to die somewhere where your bones will be rapidly buried. You then hope that the earth moves in such a way as to bring the bones back up to the surface. And then you...

Science past: 50 years ago: from Science News letter, August 30, 1958.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
August 30, 2008... NO "SAFE" RADIATION DOSE--There is no period of safety after exposure to harmful radiation, a geneticist reports. Radiation has been found to affect the primitive germ cell from which the sperm develops. Chromosome abnormalities may be...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)(Calendar)
August 30, 2008... September 14 Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy premieres on the Discovery Channel. Visit dsc.discovery.com October 5-9 International Banana Conference in Mombasa, Kenya. Visit www.banana2008.com October 18 Climate Change:...

On the Web.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(www.periodicvideos.com)(Brief article)
August 30, 2008... Crazy-haired chemist Martyn Poliakoff of the University of Nottingham in England and his colleagues lead a virtual tour of the periodic table at www.periodicvideos.com. With 118 video clips--one for each element--there's enough light, smoke,...