Science News articles from February 2009

Science News archives from February 2009

For both universe and life, only constant is change.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
February 14, 2009... Evolution isn't always only about life. It isn't even only about sex--although an engaging account by Susan Milius about sex among beetles and other creatures (Page 16) shows how interesting the evolution of sex can be. But it's another story...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Robert B. Laughlin)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... "The growing efforts of governments, corporations, and individuals to prevent competitors from knowing certain things that they themselves know has led to a stunning expansion of intellectual property rights and the strengthening of state...

Science past: February 14, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(discovery of air bubbles in polar ice cores)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] POLAR ICE CORES REVEAL TRAPPED "ANCIENT AIR"--Bubbles of "ancient air" trapped in polar ice may reveal whether the modern industrial world is polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. The air bubbles were found...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)('When Plasmons Interact, Worlds Collide: The Emerging Field of Nanophotonics', Chlorofilms plant biology video YouTube competition and the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center)(Brief article)(Calendar)
February 14, 2009... February 23 "When Plasmons Interact, Worlds Collide: The Emerging Field of Nanophotonics" at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va. Visit www.nsf.gov March 1 Deadline for submissions to the Chlorofilms plant biology...

How bizarre.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... Highly reflective crop varieties can help curb global warming. But first they have to be bioengineered and planted by farmers. A research team from the University of Bristol reports in the Jan. 27 Current Biology that increasing canopy...

Environment.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(poisoning of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... PCBs and DDT have sneaked onto the orca menu. A new study shows why southern populations are more contaminated than those in the north. See "Pacific Northwest salmon poisoning killer whales." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Body & brain.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(melatonin production and cancer)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... The city that never sleeps should turn off at least some of its lights, suggest studies linking low melatonin production with some cancers. See "Darkness, melatonin may stall breast and prostate cancers."

Atom & cosmos.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)
February 14, 2009... A tiny crystal in a rock brought back on Apollo 17 dates from the moon's earliest days. See "Oldest zircon fine-tunes history of moon's formation."

Stillbirths around the world.(Science Stats)
February 14, 2009... Number of stillbirths by region per 1,000 births in 2000 Total: 3.3 million stillbirths [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Epigenetics: from islands to the shores: tissue-specific DNA tagging found in unexpected regions.(STORY ONE)
February 14, 2009... Tattoos on the skin can say a lot about a person. On a deeper level, chemical tattoos on a person's DNA are just as distinctive and individual--and say far more about a person's life history. A pair of reports published online January 18 in...

Methyl groups move to the next generation.(Back Story)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Methylation is heritable, too As a cell divides, its DNA is precisely copied, a process that underlies inheritance. Other systems then kick in to ensure that epigenetic tags such as methyl groups are replicated...

Trees fall faster as air heats up: routine deaths in the West doubled over 50-year span.(Environment)
February 14, 2009... Those trees falling in the forest with no one listening--in the changing climate of the West, they're falling about twice as fast as 50 years ago, says a new study. These "noncatastrophic" mortalities aren't the result of wildfires or huge...

Antarctic warming.(Environment)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Contrary to previous studies, much of Antarctica has warmed in recent decades, researchers report in the Jan. 22 Nature. To assess long-term climate trends for the entire icy continent, Eric Steig of the University...

Cleaner air means warmer Europe: decline in fog, haze may fuel 10 to 20 percent of warming.(Earth)
February 14, 2009... A substantial part of the long-term warming seen in Europe during recent decades is the result of reduced pollution and fog, a new study suggests. Aerosols--tiny particles or droplets suspended in the atmosphere, such as fog, smoke and...

World's windiest ocean region.(MEETING NOTES)(Greenland)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... A buoy anchored southeast of Greenland gathered data in one of the world's most hostile environments for more than five months, until the really rough weather of winter arrived. Then the buoy snapped free--but not before it confirmed satellite...

Rain machines.(MEETING NOTES)(tropical cyclones)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... Tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and their weaker cousins, typically last only a short time and cover a relatively small area. But at some latitudes these storms provide a substantial part of a region's rainfall, a new study suggests....

Plumes of Martian methane hint at possible underground microbial life: but emissions could just be signs of geochemical processes.(Atom & Cosmos)
February 14, 2009... No one is suggesting that Mars has flatulent cows, but a new study shows that the Red Planet, like Earth, spews methane. Researchers say it's possible that the gas could be generated by bacteria living beneath the Martian surface. ...

Youth scientists to show stuff.(Science & Society)(2009 Intel Science Talent Search)
February 14, 2009... Forty students rose to the top from a pool of 1,608 entrants in the 2009 Intel Science Talent Search, America's oldest high school science competition. The finalists will travel to Washington, D.C., in March to compete for $530,000 in...

Monkeys pick the right rock: wild capuchins may plan to use most effective tool.(Life)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... Wild capuchin monkeys don't thoughtlessly grab any handy piece of stone to crack open hard-shelled nuts at snack time. These agile primates select the best tool for the job, a new study finds. Capuchins make mental plans for fracturing a...

8 million 'lost' bats maybe weren't: imaging and algorithms challenge famous Carlsbad estimate.(Life)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... Eight million is a lot of bats to lose, and now a new unpublished study may explain what happened to the possibly lost bats of Carlsbad Cavern. Short answer: The famous 8 million bats never existed in the first place, a Boston University team...

Neural circuits foster oversensitivity: borderline personality patients activate brain in specific ways.(Body & Brain)
February 14, 2009... People diagnosed with the mental ailment known as borderline personality disorder hemorrhage emotion. Real or perceived rejections, losses or even minor slights trigger depression and other volatile reactions that can lead to suicide. New...

Scalpel, check, sponges, check ...(use of checklist to reduce surgical complications)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... Reading a list of procedures aloud and checking them off before and after surgery can reduce complications by more than one-third, a new study finds. In 2008 the World Health Organization released a checklist designed to limit surgical...

Daily stress and dementia risk.(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... People who typically don't get distressed by routine events that unnerve others seem to have a lower likelihood of dementia in old age, concludes a study in the Jan. 20 Neurology. Laura Fratiglioni of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and...

Gamers crave sense of control: feeling competent matters more than violence, blood.(Humans)
February 14, 2009... Blood, guts and gore aren't what thrill avid gamers when they slaughter zombies in The House of the Dead III, a new study suggests. Instead, video game players crave feelings of control and competence. The new research, led by psychologist...

Newborns don't miss the beat: days-old babies show neural signs of detecting rhythms.(Humans)(Brief article)
February 14, 2009... Sonny and Cher once crooned that the beat goes on, but little did they know that the beat starts up within days of birth. A new study suggests that the brains of 2- to 3-day-old babies recognize when a rhythmic sequence lacks its initial beat,...

A most private evolution: dumb designs for sex: evolutionary biology walks on the weird side.
February 14, 2009... Maybe female seed beetles have their own what-the-bleep exclamation. Even for insects, it's difficult to imagine any other reaction to a male Callosobruchus maculatus beetle's sex organ, which has spikes. "It jumps to mind as something...

The dating go round: speed dating offers scientists a peek at how romance actually blossoms.
February 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dating is hell. It's a tiptoe traipse on a high wire strung across the Grand Canyon. One wrong move and you're in free fall, tumbling crazily toward a final goodnight. It's no accident that single adults laugh and...

The solar system's big bang: finding signs of a lost beginning.
February 14, 2009... Gone. Vanished. Lost. When it comes to the early history of the solar system, planetary scientists must contend with a case of nearly system-wide amnesia. Although the solar system formed nearly 4.6 billion years ago, researchers have...

Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 14, 2009... Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum Richard Fortey [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Museums are more than collections of art and artifacts: They're collections of the people who work there. In Dry...

The Inner History of Devices.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 14, 2009... The Inner History of Devices Sherry Turkle, ed. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cell phones, cyberspaces and video poker are not just functional technologies. And prosthetic eyes, dialysis machines and defibrillators are not simply medical...

Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaesthetics Changed the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 14, 2009... Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaesthetics Changed the World Stephanie J. Snow [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An account of the early pain-dulling and sensation-killing drugs and their effects on society. Oxford, 2008, 226 p., $34.95.

Urban Ants of North America and Europe: Identification, Biology and Management.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 14, 2009... Urban Ants of North America and Europe: Identification, Biology and Management John Klotz, Michael Rust, Reiner Pospischil and Laurel Hansen [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A guide for rapidly identifying these pests, and for beginning to...

A Very Improbable Story.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
February 14, 2009... A Very Improbable Story Edward Einhorn and Adam Gustavson [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A cat named Odds plays games of probability with a young boy in this children's book. Charlesbridge, 2008, 32 p., $16.95.

C[O.sub.2] Rising: The World's Greatest Environmental Challenge.
February 14, 2009... C[O.sub.2] Rising: The World's Greatest Environmental Challenge Tyler Yolk [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A biologist explains the carbon cycle. MIT Press, 2008, 223 p., $22.95.

The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 14, 2009... The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg Robert P. Crease [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An examination of the power and beauty within discrete symbolic statements. W.W. Norton & Company, 2009, 315 p.,...

Goodbye structures.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Though it is extremely regrettable and unfortunate that plastic museum artifacts are degrading ("Long live plastics," SN: 11/8/08, p. 34), the ultimate demise of these pop polymers will not have dire consequences. The same statement can't be...

Don't lose the notebook.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Regarding "Many drug trials never published" (SN: 12/20/08, p. 14), the scientific method includes the tradition of carefully recording observations in ink in a bound lab notebook so they can't be altered and must be considered in entirety. It...

Cannibalism's many benefits.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... In the article "Cannibals have better babies" (SN: 11/22/08, p. 14), Susan Milius discusses one reason for cannibalism: high-quality prey. Once spiders have mated, the priority of the female would naturally shift to the survival, and health, of...

Receding glaciers erase records of climate history.(COMMENT)(Interview)
February 14, 2009... For three decades, Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University has been monitoring the health of glaciers atop mountains from Peru to China. Skeptics initially doubted that he could retrieve meaningful data from these remote elevations. But he...

Science's status trumps winning Super Bowl rings.(FROM THE EDITOR)
February 28, 2009... Had Vince Lombardi been a scientist, he would no doubt have won a Nobel Prize or two instead of just Super Bowls, and Bartlett's would include a variant on the football coach's most famous quote: "Science isn't everything," scientist Lombardi...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(behavioral genetics)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... "Most of us do need meaning, purpose, and moral guidance in our lives. How do we find them if we accept that evolution is the real story of our origin? That question is outside the domain of science. But evolution can still shed some light on...

Science past: February 28, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(weather satellites)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... WEATHER SATELLITE ORBITING--The United States has launched into orbit the first baby weather station in space. It was hurled into its earth-circling path at 10:55 a.m. Feb. 17, and its predicted lifetime is several decades. The batteries...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(International Year of Astronomy; Sacred Waters: India's Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage; Arbor Day )(Brief article)(Calendar)
February 28, 2009... Until March 1 Vote for one of six astronomical objects for the Hubble Space Telescope to observe in honor of the International Year of Astronomy. See the candidates at youdecide.hubblesite.org March 6 "Sacred Waters: India's Great...

SN multimedia.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(sciencenews)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Access SN images and audio at the bottom of the home page. Visit "Sea level rise not uniform" for a map of where sea level rise would be highest (darkest blues) should the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melt. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Science & society.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(water treatment caused lead poisoning)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... The Washington, D.C., government erred in changing water treatment, and then tried to cover up the mistake, a team of scientists reports. Read "Watercleanup experiment caused lead poisoning."

The (-est).(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(white eyes)(Report)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... White eyes disperse to form new species faster than any other known birds. These "great speciators" diversify into between 1.95 and 2.63 species per million years, often failing to maintain gene flow across water gaps as narrow as a couple of...

Science stats.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(energy resources)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Growing renewables World average annual growth rates for energy resources production, 2002-07 Though more energy is produced by nuclear power plants, solar PV had the greatest percent increase. Nuclear power 0.4% Oil...

Early whales gave birth on land: Fossils fill gaps in story of land-to-water transition.(STORY ONE)(Report)
February 28, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It took early whales a while to fully break free of the land: For at least one species, females came back to shore to give birth, a new study suggests. Newly described fossils of ancient whales, including the...

Superconductors escape Flatland: iron-based materials allow electric current to flow in 3-D.(Matter & Energy)
February 28, 2009... A flat, two-dimensional flow of electric current has long been thought essential to the secret of high-temperature superconductors. But new research shows that an iron-based high-temperature superconductor lets current flow in three dimensions....

Boron's stable form.(Matter & Energy)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A newly discovered solid form of boron has a remarkable structure: 20-sided cages (purple) made of boron atoms interspersed with smaller groups of two boron atoms (brown). (Likely electron locations are in green.)...

Astronomers discover the smallest known transiting extrasolar planet: finding could provide clues to composition and structure.(Atom & Cosmos)(Observatory of Geneva)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Astronomers have found an extrasolar planet no more than 11 Earth masses, with a diameter about twice that of Earth's. The discovery of the planet, dubbed COROT-Exo-7b, may ultimately provide groundbreaking information about the composition and...

Galaxy bulges in its middle: new evidence suggests growth from the inside out.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Peering 12.8 billion years back in time to examine the flame of star birth in one of the earliest known galaxies, astronomers have captured the first snapshot of the formation of a galaxy's bulge--a central concentration of stars that is one of...

Fingerprints filter vibrations: ridges may help make touch sensation efficient.(Body & Brain)
February 28, 2009... The intricate patterns of swirls on human fingers may do more than help cops nab crooks. A study in the January 30 issue of Science helps crack the case of fingerprints' real job: Epidermal ridges, fingerprints' professional name, likely serve...

Kidney donation OK in long term: end-stage renal disease risk is lower among organ donors.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... When kidney transplants from living donors were first performed, doctors didn't know whether living with just one kidney might cause long-term medical repercussions. Now, researchers report in the Jan. 29 New England Journal of Medicine...

Tests identify the immune proteins that defend against West Nile virus: mice without the proteins are more susceptible to pathogen.(Body & Brain)
February 28, 2009... Scientists have found two immune proteins that orchestrate a defense against West Nile virus. By identifying the protein that initially senses the virus and another that enables immune forces to kill it, the findings might open new avenues for...

Needles rely on placebo effect.(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Acupuncture, the ancient Chinese practice of sticking needles into a patient at specific points to relieve pain and treat other conditions, seems to alleviate pain just barely better than sticking needles into nonspecified parts of the body, a...

Drug-use risk beyond genetics.(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Good parenting provides a potent buffer against some youngsters' genetic predisposition to use alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana by age 14, a study finds. Uninvolved, unsupportive parenting heralds a spike in consumption of these substances...

Excess sugar and cognition.(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Chronically elevated blood levels of the simple sugar glucose may contribute to poor cognitive function in elderly people with diabetes, a paper in the February Diabetes Care :suggests: But whether these levels add to a person's risk of...

Serotonin turns loner locusts into swarming, gregarious cereal killers: smells, sights, tickles boost levels of the neurotransmitter.(Life)
February 28, 2009... Neighbors say he seemed like such a nice, quiet locust. But a surge of serotonin, researchers now say, sent this solitary type to join a crop-destroying plague. Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) often live as shy loners that try to...

Animal ancestor probably survived ancient ice age: chemical fossils date back to at least 635 million years ago.(Life)
February 28, 2009... A new analysis of ancient chemical fossils has rocked the cradle of early animal evolution, bumping back compelling evidence of animal life to at least 635 million years ago. The findings, published in the Feb. 5 Nature, suggest that the...

Wolves borrow coat color.(Life)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Dogs flash back to their early days as wolves when they howl at the full moon or pace in a circle before lying down. But new research shows that some wolves probably inherited a trait from their domesticated cousins. Black wolves received a...

Hot chocolate, with foam please: cacao beverages appeared early in the U.S. Southwest.(Humans)
February 28, 2009... Americans liked their chocolate drinks tall and frothy long before Starbucks. People were making cacao beverages in the American Southwest as early as A.D. 1000, suggests a new chemical analysis of ancient jars. The study, published online...

Nighttime thoughts see light of day: people interpret dreams in ways that affect their waking lives.(Humans)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Dreams don't just bubble up at night and then evaporate like morning dew once the sun rises. What you dream shapes what you think about your upcoming plans and your closest confidants, especially if nighttime reveries fit with what you already...

Hormonal cues for baby cuteness: women on oral contraceptives know when a face is adorable.(Humans)(Brief article)
February 28, 2009... Everyone oohs and ahs over babies. Ironically, new research suggests that young women taking oral contraceptives are especially good at picking out babies with the most adorable little mugs. Female sex hormones sensitize women to...

Cosmic mystery: high-energy invaders from space could signal a nearby pulsar, or perhaps dark matter.
February 28, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There's an air of excitement in the astrophysics community, created by a surplus of particles from space invading Earth's atmosphere. Balloon flights high in the stratosphere over Antarctica detected electrons...

Mitochondria gone bad: problems in the cell's energy factories power new ideas on disease and aging.
February 28, 2009... The patient, known as only "MBM," was just 7 years old the first time doctors saw her. She had always been prone to night sweats, but now excessive perspiration was forcing her to change clothes several times a day. She was endlessly thirsty,...

First wave: the presidents of two island nations draft escape plans, anticipating sea level rise.(Anote Tong of Kiribati and Mohamed Nasheed of Maldives)
February 28, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Maldives, a chain of some 1,200 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, sits about 700 kilometers southwest of Sri Lanka and lures more than half a million adventurers each year. They come to this smallest of...

Galaxy clusters slide.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Could the general motion of galaxy clusters ("Galaxy clusters slide to the south," SN: 10/25/08, p. 12) be evidence of rotational motion of the matter components of the universe on a scale much larger than the observable universe? Would such...

Treating itch with acupuncture.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Concerning "Itch" (SN: 11/22/08, p. 16): One of the theories behind acupuncture is the interrelation of nerves throughout the body so that stimulation in one area will have an effect on another. Since the researchers have discovered a new...

What's in a name.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... I thought that Alan Stern's article ("Debates over definition of planet continue and inspire," SN: 12/6/08, p. 32) was right on. As a docent at the Detroit Science Center, I have found the lay public to be somewhat confused by the IAU decision....

The nocebo effect.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... In "Imagination Medicine" (SN: 12/20/08, p. 26) the author talks about how the placebo effect could be making a drug appear more effective than it really is. That part of the article made me wonder if the placebo effect could cause an opposite...

Correction.(FEEDBACK)(Correction notice)
February 28, 2009... The wording near the end of "For a big view of inner Earth, catch a few geoneutrinos" (SN: 1/17/09, p. 16) was misleading in saying that "only a fraction of potassium-40 is radioactive." Actually, only the potassium-40 fraction of all potassium...

Sand: The Never-Ending Story.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 28, 2009... Sand: The Never-Ending Story Michael Welland [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sand, despite what one character in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind claims, is more than just tiny little rocks. Sure, around 70 percent of the...

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 28, 2009... The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet Neil deGrasse Tyson [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Americans love the pla... err, dwarf pla... err, plutoid Pluto. The feeling is so strong, in fact, that it sparked an...

Nation needs recovery plan for science faculty jobs.(COMMENT)
February 28, 2009... Over the past few months, many graduate students and postdocs have been receiving letters from department chairs apologetically explaining that the faculty job search at Institution X has been canceled. State and private universities are facing...