Science News articles from February 2002

Science News archives from February 2002

Genetic lynx: North American lynx make one huge family. (This Week).(link between Canada and American lynx)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... A new study of lynx in North America suggests the animals interbreed widely, sometimes with populations thousands of kilometers away. This genetic finding could be a boon for conservationists hoping to secure the cats' future. The Canada...

Drink and thrive: moderate alcohol use reduces dementia risk. (This Week).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 2, 2002... Alcohol doesn't often get billed as a brain food, but new research suggests that booze offers at least one cerebral benefit. It may reduce aging drinkers' risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Although extreme...

Ominous signals: genes may identify the worst breast cancers. (This Week).(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... Some women with breast cancer respond well to treatment while others succumb to the disease, even when the cancer in both cases appears to have been caught early and was treated similarly. A growing pool of evidence suggests that the genetic...

Viral parts: chemists convert virus into nanoscale tool. (This Week).(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... Unless they have a cold, most chemists give viruses little thought. That may change now that some researchers are decorating these microbes with a variety of molecules--making the germs into potential building blocks in electronic circuits and...

Supernova dealt deaths on earth? Stellar blasts may have killed ancient marine life. (This Week).(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... A group of young, hot stars in and near the constellation Scorpius shine brightly, making a memorable sight in the southern night sky. But if Narciso Benitez of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and his colleagues are correct, this...

Petite pollinators: tree raises its own crop of couriers. (This Week).(thrips pollination)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... A tropical tree creates insect nurseries in its buds for miniscule pollinators, say German scientists. This novel strategy relies on thrips, insects rarely considered pollinators. Darwin dismissed thrips as annoyances that fouled his...

Talent Search: student finalists' flair for science to be rewarded. (This Week).
February 2, 2002... The Science Talent Search, a prestigious high school science competition, often serves as a springboard for a career in science or engineering. This week, judges announced the 40 finalists in the 61st year of the contest. Selected from a...

Germs that do a body good: bacteria might someday keep the doctor away. (Cover Story).
February 2, 2002... After several straight months of persistent diarrhea, a New York woman was exhausted, uncomfortable, and frustrated. She also was out thousands of dollars that she'd spent on drugs and hospital bills. The problem had begun while she was being...

It's a rough world: fractals help model vexing problems in earth science.
February 2, 2002... In the realm of mathematics, perfection abounds. Lines stretch straight to infinity, planes are flawlessly flat, and spheres are impeccably round. The real world, however, is almost always irregular--the jagged spear of a lightning bolt, the...

Balloon bursts give clue to fast cracks. (Physics).(research on propagation of fast-moving cracks)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... Ever since a fellow physicist pointed out to Robert D. Deegan that the edges of popped balloons have ripples like tiny shark teeth, he has wondered why. Now, Deegan and his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin may have found a...

Biotech-crop laws were big in 2001. (Environment).(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... Last year, 22 state legislatures passed bills addressing agricultural biotechnology, which concerns the development of genetically modified crops. Although economically important, such crops are politically controversial--and targeted by some...

Compound mimics calorie restriction. (Biomedicine).(peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-delta)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... A chemical agent now under development mimics the health benefits of long-term calorie restriction and may help ward off diseases of aging such as diabetes and heart disease. Animals whose food intake is restricted to about two-thirds of...

Some new stars in the neighborhood. (Astronomy).(12 previously unknown stars discovered in southern sky)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... Surveying the distant universe is a daunting task, but spotting stars even a few tens of light-years from our solar system isn't easy either. Most are much less massive than the sun, and many emit less than 1 percent as much light. Faint,...

New way of gauging reservoir evaporation. (Meteorology).(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for managing the water level of large human-made reservoirs in the western United States, including several behind dams on the upper reaches of the Missouri River. Evaporation, especially during...

Storm warnings take new tone of voice. (Science & Society).(National Weather Service to new computer-generated voices for broadcasts of severe weather warnings)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... In January, the National Weather Service began testing new computer-generated voices for the agency's broadcasts of severe weather warnings. By the end of March, the new voices will replace the computerized voice that's been used since 1997....

An El Nino link with a tropical disease? (Biomedicine).(research indicates link between bartonellosis and El Nino)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2002... An analysis of recent outbreaks of an often fatal disease in Peru may strengthen a link between the malady and the warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean known as El Nino. If proven, the connection could help health workers stave off future...

A letter of floods. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
February 2, 2002... The article "Farmers took fast track in settling Europe" (SN: 11/17/01, p. 308) notes that Joao Zilhao has hypothesized that the rapid spread of agriculture in Europe occurred as a result of people's need to escape conflicts in "heavily...

Shattered hypothesis? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
February 2, 2002... The brief article on the discovery of sheets of melted sand in Australia ("Desert glass: Is it baked Australia?" SN: 11/24/01, p. 331) mentioned several possible sources of the heat that produced this material, but it failed to mention the most...

Circuitry in a nanowire: novel growth method may transform chips. (Science News This Week).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... In a feat of nanometer-scale engineering, researchers have produced semiconductor filaments that are as thin as viruses but contain working electronic and optical devices. Alternating bands of different semiconductor materials in the superthin...

Dose of caution: new antipsychotic meds produce muted benefits. (Science News This Week).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... The past decade has witnessed a wave of new medications to treat schizophrenia, a debilitating mental disorder that afflicts 1 in 100 people. Armed with results from their own studies, various pharmaceutical companies tout the new drugs, the...

Hard rock jellies: throng of rare fossils found in midwest quarry. (Science News This Week).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... A sandstone quarry that normally supplies flagstone for hearths and custom countertops recently served up a rare scientific find nearly half a billion years in the making: fossils of an armada of jellyfish that stud the site's stone slabs. ...

Taking a toll: antiviral drugs activate immune system. (Science News This Week).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... Investigators in Japan have now found a major clue to the workings of some of the most promising antiviral medicines under development. These compounds include resiquimod, which scientists are testing against genital herpes. The new...

Slowing lupus: stifled inflammation limits kidney damage. (Science News This Week).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... Restoring the body's balance between the actions of antibodies and natural regulatory proteins is the goal of a therapy being developed for the autoimmune disease lupus. This treatment thwarts activation of an array of immune-system proteins...

Extreme weather: massive hurricanes meet on Jupiter. (Science News This Week).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... Amateur and professional sky watchers are pointing their telescopes at Jupiter this month to record what could be a historic encounter. Two huge storms on the giant planet are beginning to encounter each other, and no one knows what will happen...

Protection money: budget favors defense and bioterror research. (Science News This Week).
February 9, 2002... The four-volume, 2,726-page budget proposal that President Bush forwarded to Congress on Feb. 4 includes the largest-ever increase for scientific research and development, with particularly generous provisions for defense and health R&D...

Anatomy of a lightning ball: an aerial wonder, pondered for ages, no longer seems so ghostly.
February 9, 2002... Not many people get to see ball lightning, but those who do never forget it. Imagine a glowing orb suddenly materializing in front of you, possibly sizzling or exuding a bluish mist and an acrid smell. The globe may be larger than a beach ball...

Meeting Danielle the tarantula: and other adventures behind the scenes at the insect zoo.
February 9, 2002... Here's how good these people are. I've had no coffee and not much sleep, but at a bit after 8 a.m., I'm already convinced that it's fun to hold a cockroach so big I need both hands. The entomologist who just eased the Madagascar hissing...

Carbon pods are more than a pack of peas. (Materials Science).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... In a step toward a postsilicon age of microelectronics, researchers have found that they can manipulate the electronic character of nanoscopic carbon structures. The researchers worked with hollow, 1-nanometer-wide carbon nanotubes, which...

Skulls attest to Iron Age scalping. (Archaelogy).(skulls of Scythians killed in battle)(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... About 2,500 years ago, the Greek historian Herodotus described, in gory detail, how Scythian warriors of central Asia scalped vanquished foes. Archaeologists now have identified the first hard evidence of that practice. According to their...

DREAMing away pain. (Biomedicine).(researchers mutate gene that encodes protein called DREAM that suppresses pain perception opoid)(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... The mutant mice didn't make sense. Josef M. Penninger of the University of Toronto and his colleagues had disabled a rodent gene that they thought controlled another gene, one involved in the immune system. Yet the mice had no immune defects or...

Old pesticide still makes it to Arctic. (Environment).(chlordanes found in Arctic air samples)(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... The pesticides known as chlordanes belong to a class of long-lasting organochlorine pollutants that includes DDT and polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB. Although Western countries have banned their use, chlordanes applied years ago gradually...

Heart recipients add their own cells. (Biomedicine).(research on transplanted hearts indicates heart may be able to generate its own tissue)(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... Transplanted hearts incorporate muscle and blood-vessel cells from the organ's recipient, researchers report in the Jan. 3 New England Journal of Medicine. The work suggests that the heart may be capable of regenerating its own tissue. ...

Unfertilized monkey eggs make stem cells. (Biology).(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... A biotech firm recently made news by claiming to have cloned human embryos in order to produce medically useful stem cells (SN: 12/1/01, p. 341). At the time, Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Mass., also reported...

Light comes to halt again--in a solid. (Physics).(researchers slow light pulses to halt and briefly store them in solid)(Brief Article)
February 9, 2002... Last year, for the first time, scientists slowed light pulses to a halt and briefly stored them in a gas before permitting them to reemerge at normal speed (SN: 1/27/01, p. 52). Now, a team of researchers in the United States and Korea has...

Unit wits. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
February 9, 2002... Twice in the Dec. 1, 2001, issue, your checkers didn't catch incorrect numbers. First on page 342 ("Dried-up California lake gets muddy facial"), you state that the project will require about 4.5 million gallons of water "annually--an amount...

What's so weird? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
February 9, 2002... The discussion of photon entanglement in "Gadgets from the quantum spookhouse" (SN: 12/8/01, p. 364) invokes the debatable premise that physical facts are not real unless they are observed. The article's own glove metaphor provides a perfect...

Better stainless: analysis could bring pits out of the steel. (Science news: this week).(research on preventing pit corrosion in stainless steel)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Stainless steel, true to its name, resists rust. Cheaper grades of the material, however, are susceptible to pit corrosion, in which small spots on the metal's surface erode at accelerated rates. In certain environments, pit corrosion can...

Antibody warfare: vaccine halts microbes in dialysis patients. (Science news: this week).(vaccine against bacterium Staphylococcus aureus)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... By inducing the immune system to do a job that antibiotics sometimes can't, scientists have found a way to fend off a microbe that causes deadly blood infections. The researchers fashioned a vaccine against the troublesome bacterium...

Biodiversity hot spots: top 10 sea locales make sobering list. (Science news: this week).(biologists identify world's most vulnerable coral reefs)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... For the first time, biologists have identified the world's most vulnerable coral reefs. Each so-called hot spot is a marine region rife with organisms found nowhere else and threatened by human influence. The 10 hot spots "represent very...

Vitamin void: heart disease may lurk in [B.sub.12] deficiency. (Science news: this week).(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Meatless eating typically improves cardiovascular health, but new research suggests that a dietary shortage of a crucial vitamin leads to an overabundance of the amino acid homocysteine in some vegetarians, which could pose a risk to their...

X-ray universe: quasar's jet goes the distance.(NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovers longest X ray-emitting jet ever found in distant galaxy)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Photons left over from the birth of the universe appear to have helped generate the longest X ray-emitting jet ever found in a distant galaxy. Discovered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the jet shoots at least 1 million light-years into...

Cool discovery: menthol triggers cold-sensing protein. (Science news: this week).(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Incorporated into everything from pain-relieving creams to after-dinner mints, menthol elicits a pleasant cooling sensation on the skin or tongue. As a result, researchers have suspected that the chemical activates the same sensory receptors on...

Disorder decline: U.S. mental ills take controversial dip. (Science news: this week).(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Far fewer people suffer from mental disorders requiting treatment than was initially indicated by two national surveys, according to a reanalysis of them. However, some researchers argue that the revision understates the reach of serious mental...

Itsy chain turns bitsy gears.(researchers create microscopic chain drive)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... The 19th-century chain drive remains popular in bicycles, car engines, and industrial machinery. Now, designers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., have reinvented the component at a microscopic scale. Ed Vernon and his...

A fair share of the pie: people everywhere put a social spin on economic exchanges.
February 16, 2002... Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania chow down on gazelle meat, fruit, honey, and other mealtime staples without spending a dime. The Au and Gnau foragers of Papua New Guinea generously give food and other gifts to their neighbors without...

The hunger hormone? An appetite stimulant produced by the stomach may lead to treatments for obesity and wasting syndromes.(research indicates hormone called ghrelin produces hunger)
February 16, 2002... Perhaps you skipped breakfast this morning. It's nearly noon and your stomach is starting to rumble. Or maybe you're working late and developing a headache because you haven't had dinner yet. In both of these cases, your body is sending a clear...

Tropical plants grow cool flowers. (Botany).(research indicates two tropical plants shift blooms toward sun)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... By shifting the positions of their flowers, two tropical species keep their blooms at comfortable temperatures for pollinators, say researchers. Ipomoea pes-caprae and Merremia borneensis in the morning glow family don't track the sun's...

Alzheimer's vaccine trial is suspended. (Biomedicine).(brain inflammation detected in several participants)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Generating concern and disappointment among Alzheimer's disease researchers worldwide, a drug company in Ireland has halted tests of an experimental vaccine for the brain disorder. Citing evidence of inflammation in the central nervous system...

Yellower blue tits make better dads. (Biology).(research on European bird species)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Among the little European birds called blue tits, it's the yellow feathers that mark a good dad. That's the conclusion of a novel experiment by Juan Carlos Senar and his colleagues at the Museu de Zoologia in Barcelona. They've been...

Low birth weight matters later, too. (Biomedicine).(research indicates link between prematurity and academic achievement)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Premature babies weighing less than 1.5 kilograms--about 3 pounds, 5 ounces--at birth grow up to have lower achievement scores on standard tests and are less likely to go to college than are full-term babies weighing more than twice as much, a...

Women whiff men in sniff proficiency. (Behavior).(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Women smell better than men, and it's not just the perfume. As is the case for many gender differences, hormones appear to be behind the general advantage women have when it comes to their ability to detect odors. In a series of trials, a...

UV telescopes: one dead, one revived. (Astronomy).(Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer spacecraft plunges into Earth's atmosphere; Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer improved)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... On Jan. 30, 13 months after NASA ended observations with the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer spacecraft, the satellite plunged into Earth's atmosphere and burned up over central Egypt. Launched in 1992, the craft was the first mission to...

Scientists make nanothermometer. (Materials Science).(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... Reading an old-fashioned mercury thermometer sometimes requires some squinting. But that's nothing compared with what's needed to read the newest temperature-measuring device. Yihua Gao and Yoshio Bando of the National Institute for...

A new molecule and a new signature. (Chemistry).(tetranitrogen)(Brief Article)
February 16, 2002... In a pair of discoveries, separate groups of researchers have identified a novel form of nitrogen and determined the spectroscopic signature of another curious molecule. Both molecules are unstable, making it difficult to create and study them....

Low down. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
February 16, 2002... The work in "Low radiation hurts bystander cells" (SN: 12/8/01, p. 356) does show nonlinearity of cell damage from alpha radiation in the dose range studied, but the lowest dose studied (5 percent of all cell nuclei hit) is probably several...

Warm tidings. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
February 16, 2002... The methane and carbon monoxide released during charcoal production have short atmospheric lifetimes compared with that of fossil fuel carbon dioxide ("Charcoal warms the whole world," SN: 12/15/01, p. 383). In the long run, the net effect of...

Mild hypothermia aids heart attack recovery. (Chill Out).(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... It sounds cold, but icing down patients who have just had a heart stoppage may boost their survival chances and prevent brain damage in those who do pull through, two new studies show. A heart attack, near-drowning, or other misfortune that...

Unusual laser emits a band of light. (Beam Team).(broadband laser)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... Typically, lasers emit light of one pure color, or wavelength. A new little laser breaks that mold by generating a beam containing all the wavelengths in a swath of the electromagnetic spectrum. This new broadband laser operates in the...

Immune cells target cancerous tissue. (Vaccine Power).(prostate cancer vaccine)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... In its first test in people, a new vaccine shows signs of fighting prostate cancer in men who have the disease. The treatment enlists a person's own immune cells to attack prostate tissue, including cancerous tissue. Despite assaulting some...

Chromosome study homes in on Alzheimer's disease. (Suspicious DNA).(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... Like crime suspects yanked from a police lineup and held for additional questioning, several human chromosomes now face intensified scrutiny for possibly harboring genes involved in Alzheimer's disease. New data from a genome-screening study...

Our ancestors had a bash eating wild nuts. (Almond Joy, Stone Age Style).(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... Around 780,000 years ago, human ancestors living along a lakeshore in what is now northern Israel ate a varied diet. It included fat- and protein-rich almonds, pistachios, and other hard-shelled nuts, according to a new report. As both...

Latest census resets U.S. population clock. (And Counting ...).(2000 census missed slightly more than 1 percent of U.S. population)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... The 2000 census missed a little more than 1 percent of the nation's population, according to follow-up surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. One of the biggest contributors to the error was a surge of undocumented immigrants to the...

Native reeds harbor aggressive alien. (Cryptic Invasion).(Phragmites australis plants)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... A mild-mannered reed native to the United States is getting blamed for mayhem created by an evil twin, says a Yale researcher. Tall Phragmites australis plants, often just called Phragmites, have waved their tasseled tops over wetlands in...

Materials take wing: what to do with 4 billion pounds of feathers?(research on turning feathers into useful products)
February 23, 2002... In July 1999, textile engineer Brian George of Philadelphia University's School of Textiles and Materials Technology visited a friend who raises chickens. After helping with the slaughter, George suddenly realized that he and his friend had a...

The Milky Way's middle: getting a clear view. (Cover Story).
February 23, 2002... Astronomers can peer at galaxies clear across the universe, but they have a hard time looking at the center of our own Milky Way. Only 26,000 light-years from Earth, the galaxy's core is like a smoggy metropolis. Shrouds of dust mask a hotbed...

Infants emerge as picky imitators. (Behavior).(research on infant behavior)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... By the age of 14 months, infants are masters of imitation. They mimic all sorts of behaviors, including laboratory antics such as touching one's forehead tea box that then lights up. Babies on the brink of toddlerhood are not indiscriminate...

Galileo at Jupiter: the goodbye tour. (Astronomy).(Galileo spacecraft's cameras shut down)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... Hampered by a communications antenna that never unfurled, the Galileo spacecraft became known as the plucky mission that overcame major obstacles. During more than 6 years of touring Jupiter and its four largest moons, the spacecraft managed to...

Dinosaur tracks show walking and running. (Paleontology).(megalosaurus)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... A single trail of dinosaur footprints in a quarry northwest of London preserves a record of two different walking styles in the same animal, a tantalizing clue that some lumbering, bipedal dinosaurs could also run. The trail of three-toed...

Shuttle yields detailed, 3-D atlas. (Earth Science).(space shuttle Endeavour)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... Rand McNally, look out. NASA scientists and Defense Department mapmakers are assembling billions of radar measurements made from the space shuttle Endeavour to produce what they say will be the world's best topographic map. During a 12-day...

A new way to stick it to flies. (Physics).(use of electrostatics to trap insects)(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... Walk on carpet and you may build up enough static electricity to generate a little shock. Researchers are now capitalizing on the phenomenon to trap insects. The bizarre strategy is to let the critters charge up as they walk, then use this...

Indoor tanning ups all skin cancer rates. (Biomedicine).(Brief Article)
February 23, 2002... Artificial sunbathing using ultraviolet lights--a practice already linked to melanoma, the rarest but deadliest form of skin cancer--increases the risk of all types of skin cancer, according to new data. Margaret R. Karagas of Dartmouth...

Change is good/bad. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
February 23, 2002... I have to tell you that your new look will keep your base audience and attract new readers. Your new design leaped off the kitchen counter and said, "Read me, read me!" It is still serious, as it should be, but so much more inviting. BECKY...