Science News articles from January 2003

Science News archives from January 2003

Nanotubes toughen up ceramics. (Fracture Protection).
January 4, 2003... Ceramics are famous for being hard but easy to break. Now, researchers have demonstrated that adding carbon nanotubes to a ceramic material can nearly triple its resistance to fracturing. Since carbon nanotubes were discovered a decade ago,...

Early Earth's air was oxygen-poor. (Sulfur Studies).
January 4, 2003... Analyses of ancient sulfide minerals and the modern organisms that create sulfides are giving scientists a better idea of what Earth's atmosphere and oceans may have been like billions of years ago. The findings may also explain a paradox that...

Fancy navigation, for an invertebrate. (Homing Lobsters).(spiny lobsters have true navigation)
January 4, 2003... Scientists willing to drive boats and cars in convoluted patterns say that spiny lobsters are the first animals without backbones to pass tests for the orienteering power called true navigation. This capability lets homing pigeons and a few...

Brain reflects superior recollection strategy. (Secrets of Memory All-Stars).
January 4, 2003... Some people have flypaper memories. Bits and pieces of information stick in their minds, enabling them to remember a dizzying array of stuff. These memory all-stars aren't smarter than the rest of us. Nor do they possess brains equipped...

Caffeine boosts predictor of heart problems. (Coffee Jitters).(increased levels of homocysteine may increase risk of heart attack)
January 4, 2003... Whether it comes from coffee or another source, caffeine gives a troubling boost to one biological indicator of poor heart health, a new study suggests. Moreover, other ingredients in coffee appear to at least double the effect of caffeine...

Injections counteract psoriasis in patients. (Clear Skin).
January 4, 2003... Injections of an immune system protein can alleviate skin problems in people with psoriasis, a German-Dutch research team reports. The well-tolerated protein, called interleukin-4, works as well as a powerful standard therapy known to cause...

Mapping with grace: twin satellites chart changes in Earth's gravitational field.
January 4, 2003... Concerned about your weight? Don't go to the North Pole, where you're about 20 km closer to the center of Earth--and therefore a pound or so heavier--than at the equator. Head, instead, for India. There, you'd be standing over a less-dense...

Breathtaking science: biologists home in on the brain area that drives respiration.
January 4, 2003... Nearly 2,400 years ago in a treatise aptly titled "On Breath," Aristotle posed a question that continues to captivate scientists today: "How can we account for the maintenance of the breath inherent in us, and for its increase?" In a suburb...

Hawaii's hated frogs: tiny invaders raise a big ruckus.(populations of coquies, frogs native to Puerto Rico, invade Hawaii)(Cover Story)
January 4, 2003... Puerto Rico's beloved mascot is a miniature tree frog named for its distinctive call: ko-KEE. All night long, choirs of love-starved males serenade would-be mates, who respond with quiet guttural chuckles. "To me, it's pleasant--just like birds...

Protein vaccine slows leukemia. (Cancer).(Brief Article)
January 4, 2003... By injecting leukemia patients with part of a protein found in greater abundance on cancerous cells than on healthy ones, researchers have been able to induce some patients' immune systems to fight this blood cancer. Jeffrey J. Molldrem of...

Getting the iron out. (Anemia).(getting rid of excess iron in the body)
January 4, 2003... While transfusions are lifesavers for many anemia patients, they introduce excess iron into recipients. This overload can damage the liver, pancreas, and heart. A new pill that reverses this process may vastly improve the lives of anemia...

Carbon nanotubes beam electrons. (Materials Science).(Brief Article)
January 4, 2003... The scientists who work with carbon nanotubes have big dreams for the tiny objects, including superfast electronics and hard spaceship materials. To date, however, few applications using the nanoscale carbon cylinders have been realized. ...

Double cord-blood transplant helps cancer patients. (Biomedicine).(Brief Article)
January 4, 2003... For patients with blood diseases who need a stem cell transplant, doctors often turn to umbilical cord blood. But the small supply of blood in each cord is often inadequate to meet the needs of an adult patient (SN: 10/26/02, p. 261). To...

Runaway black hole. (Astronomy).(Brief Article)
January 4, 2003... Observing a black hole and a companion star caroming through our galaxy, astronomers say they've found the best evidence to date that small black holes are born during supernova explosions. The black hole and its partner, collectively known...

Brain learns to sharpen its focus. (Neuroscience).(Brief Article)
January 4, 2003... Practicing a perceptual skill dramatically alters the way the visual system works, according to a study that will appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For people tested on their ability to spot subtle visual...

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide.(Book Review)
January 4, 2003... TERENCE DICKINSON AND ALAN DYER Completely revised from its previous edition 10 years ago, this all-encompassing reference provides practical advice about buying one of the latest telescopes, setting it up, and learning how to use it. Once...

If Only They Could Speak: Stories About Pets and Their People.(Book Review)
January 4, 2003... NICHOLAS H. DODMAN As the founder of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts Veterinary School, Dodman has seen just about every outlandish and disturbing habit a pet could exhibit, from a dog that always arranges exactly six pieces of kibble...

The Mathematics of Oz: Mental Gymnastics from Beyond the Edge.(Book Review)
January 4, 2003... CLIFFORD A. PICKOVER The prodigious Pickover challenges fans of recreational mathematics and the like with this astounding collection of more than 100 puzzles. Each is based on one or more mathematical topics: geometry and mazes,...

Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules.(Book Review)
January 4, 2003... PHILIP BALL Most people don't think much about molecules or how they interact. Yet molecular chemistry drives some of the most thrilling breakthroughs of modern science. Bali's inspiring tour of this small world illustrates how molecules...

Strange Matters: Undiscovered Ideas at the Frontiers of Space and Time.(Book Review)
January 4, 2003... TOM SIEGFRIED What's the universe made of? How does it work? These are the two questions that stoke the creative and intellectual fires of physicists. The answers that they offer nowadays seem counterintuitive and sometimes downright...

A Thin Cosmic Rain: Particles from Outer Space.(Book Review)
January 4, 2003... MICHAEL W. FRIEDLANDER Earth's atmosphere is regularly bombarded by cosmic rays, a thin rain of particles generated largely by supernovas, with some particles coming from the sun. This rain is mostly high-speed protons, with about 9...

Wonderful world of color. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
January 4, 2003... In response to ("Why turn Red?" SN: 10/26/02, p. 264), I'd like to ask why is it that on our campus, native swamp maples growing within 30 feet of one another display totally different leaf color? While I appreciate them aesthetically, I'd also...

What's in a lake? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
January 4, 2003... "Once Upon A Lake" (SN: 11/2/02, p. 283), claims that Lake Agassiz became the world's largest lake. It seems to me that the same conditions should have occurred in Asia. Shouldn't you compare Lake Agassiz to glacier-dam-produced lakes in Asia...

Was it pills or pain? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
January 4, 2003... "Hidden Effect? Hypertension risk linked to common, over-the-counter pain relievers" (SN: 11/2/02, p. 278) says that women taking some kinds of over-the-counter painkillers are more likely than others to have high blood pressure. The conclusion...

Kidney makeup may set hypertension risk. (Determined at Birth?).
January 11, 2003... In the kidneys, clusters of capillaries and tubes called nephrons filter gallons of blood every day and direct the impurities to the urine. According to a current theory, people lacking a full complement of nephrons are at increased risk of...

How an ancient sea creature grows up. (Stalking Larvae).(larvae of sea lily observed)
January 11, 2003... Researchers in Japan have finally observed living larvae of a sea lily, a marine invertebrate with a 500-million-year fossil record. The finding supports a century-old hypothesis about how the vertebrate nervous system evolved. Until now,...

Scared to fly after 9/11? Don't reach for the car keys. (Unfounded Fear).
January 11, 2003... Flying within the United States remains a much safer way to travel than driving, even when accounting for airline fatalities resulting from the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. According to a new analysis of transportation safety, the...

Mental disorder may spur math problems in teens. (Bipolar Math Subtractions).(bipolar disorders)
January 11, 2003... The severe psychiatric ailment known as bipolar disorder takes individuals on an emotional roller-coaster ride over dizzying peaks of agitation, euphoria, and grandiose thinking and through valleys of soul-numbing depression. New evidence...

Report seeks revived Smithsonian science. (Science Revalued).(funding issues of Smithosonian Institution)
January 11, 2003... A long-awaited report on science at the Smithsonian Institution calls urgently for more federal and private funding to prevent a slide into mediocrity. The report recommends preservation of a besieged materials-research center but says that an...

Gene mutation causes heart problems.(atrial fibrillation)
January 11, 2003... Chinese researchers have for the first time identified a genetic defect that causes atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that afflicts 5 percent of people over 65 years old. In the disorder, the heart's upper chambers, the atria, beat...

Jet Streams)Droplet behavior captured by high-speed camera. (Losing Rhythm).
January 11, 2003... In 1882, British physicist Lord Rayleigh proposed that under certain conditions, droplets of liquid could spout microscopic jets of fluid. Now, for the first time, a series of images has clearly captured the droplets in the act. Rayleigh...

Testicular cancer tied to a fetus' pollutant contact. (Moms' POPs, Sons' Problems).
January 11, 2003... Women who've had substantial exposure to certain environmental pollutants are more likely than others to bear sons who develop testicular cancers. These findings of a new epidemiological study jibe with a current hypothesis that contact with...

A shot in the light: precise bullet replicas take aim at crime-fighting standards.(creation of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network database)
January 11, 2003... During the sniper shootings of 13 people in the Washington, D.C., area last October, police initially uncovered only a sparse trail of evidence--often just the bullet itself. As tension mounted over several weeks, newscasts repeatedly reported...

Camelid comeback: scientists search for ways to save wild cousins on two continents. .(preservation efforts for the vicuna and two-hump camels)(Cover Story)
January 11, 2003... A female Bactrian camel stands out from her wild Mongolian herd. She sports a tan, leather collar. Last October, researchers installed the tracking device on this two-humped native of the Asian desert steppe. She represents one of the three...

A fish's solution to broken hearts. (Biology).(ability of zebrafish to regenerate heart tissue)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2003... A zebrafish can regrow its heart within 2 months of having a significant portion of it surgically removed, according to a study in the Dec. 13, 2002 Science. "Zebrafish hearts can regenerate without scars," says Mark T. Keating, a Howard Hughes...

Soy and oat combo protects against UV. (Chemistry).(ultraviolet rays)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2003... It might be winter, but two scientists in Peoria, Ill., have sunscreen on their minds. U.S. Department of Agriculture chemists have made a new, biodegradable sunscreen by using soybean oil and a natural chemical in oat bran. Joe Laszlo and...

Rivers run to it. (Environment).(sources of warm water in the Arctic Ocean)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2003... Eurasian rivers dominate the flow of fresh water into the Arctic Ocean. A new hydrology study finds that releases from the six largest of these rivers have increased for some 60 years in near lockstep with steady arctic increases in surface-air...

Researchers target sickle-cell cure. (Biomedicine).(Brief Article)
January 11, 2003... Stem cell transplants have long been a therapy option for children with life-threatening cases of sickle-cell disease, but the procedure itself can be deadly. Researchers in France now report that transplants have cured 30 consecutive patients...

Speech veers left in babies' brains. (Neuroscience).(left hemisphere area responsible for understanding speech)(Brief Article)
January 11, 2003... In adults, the brain's left hemisphere usually assumes primary responsibility for understanding speech. A new brain-imaging study suggests that a fledgling version of this left-brain specialization appears in 2-to-3-month-old babies as they...

Ragweed may boom with global warming. (Biology).(Brief Article)
January 11, 2003... An experiment in which infrared heaters warmed ragweed on an Oklahoma prairie suggests that climate change actually is something to sneeze at. Artificially warming a plot yielded extra ragweed plants, say Shiqiang Wan and his colleagues...

The American Heritage Student Science Dictionary.(Book Review)
January 11, 2003... More than 4,500 entries in this dictionary cover fields of science including biology, chemistry, physics, and geology. Elaborate and clearly written definitions put topics in context. For instance, the entry for glaciers not only tells what...

Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill?(Book Review)
January 11, 2003... JONATHAN H. PINCUS Neurologist Pincus, with forensic psychologist Dorothy Lewis, interviewed and examined violent criminals--many on death row--to determine what caused them to commit murder. In one case, a man who killed a pregnant woman...

Full Moon.(Book Review)
January 11, 2003... MICHAEL LIGHT During their travels, Apollo astronauts took nearly 32,000 photographs documenting their journeys. For years, many of these pictures weren't available to the public. Light handpicked 129 of them--57 black-and-white and 72...

Knots: Mathematics With A Twist.(Book Review)
January 11, 2003... ALEXEI SOSSINSKY Knots are trendy, declares Sossinsky, a Russian mathematician. Long ignored as an important but uninteresting branch of topology, knot theory is now used in descriptions of weather systems, mathematical models used in...

Magick, Mayhem, and Mavericks: The Spirited History of Physical Chemistry.(Book Review)
January 11, 2003... CATHY COBB At one time, physical chemistry was the province of alchemists and sorcerers. It was considered a realm of magic. Cobb traces the history of this field beginning with the ancient Greeks. She explains how knowledge of basic...

Newton: The Making of Genius.(Book Review)
January 11, 2003... PATRICIA FARA Even the smallest schoolchild is familiar with the story of the falling apple and Isaac Newton, the world's first great scientist. But how did this reputation develop at a time when the word scientist wasn't even part of the...

The people have spoken. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
January 11, 2003... All the alternative voting systems in "Election Selection" (SN: 11/2/02, p. 280) have a common devil, complexity. How can anyone but a self-indulgent intellectual suggest that the answer to our problems is to further complicate a system that is...

Some insects that didn't use it didn't lose it. (Retaking Flight).
January 18, 2003... Stick insects may have done what biologists once thought was impossible: lose something as complicated as a wing in the course of evolution but recover it millions of years later. That's not supposed to happen with so-called complex traits,...

Sugar-protein link joins embryo to Mom. (Getting Attached).
January 18, 2003... It's the first bond between a mother and her child--and arguably, the most vital one. When a newly created human embryo enters its mother's uterus, it must attach to the wall if it's going to continue developing. The molecules that mediate...

Hormone-linked problems reflect parent-child bond. (Testosterone's Family Ties).
January 18, 2003... Testosterone has a public reputation as the hormone that turns men into boisterous louts at best and violent criminals at worst. New evidence is challenging that. Witness a new study that finds no link between testosterone concentrations...

Material repels water on command. (Quick-Change Surface).
January 18, 2003... In an advance that could open new mutes to sensors, drug delivery, and many other technologies, researchers have modified a gold surface so that it switches from a water-attracting mode to a water-repelling one on command. With that capability,...

Compound in bat saliva may aid stroke patients. (Nifty Spittle).
January 18, 2003... When a vampire bat bites an animal, its saliva introduces an anticlotting agent to keep the blood meal flowing. Scientists now report that this compound, which busts up blood clots as well as the leading medication for treating strokes does,...

Arctic shows surprising hydrothermal activity. (Northern Vents).
January 18, 2003... A recent survey along a midocean ridge beneath the Arctic icepack unveiled an unexpected abundance of hydrothermal activity. Besides casting doubt on current theories about where such vent systems can arise, the wayward vents could harbor...

Orb isn't just another extrasolar planet. (Distant and Strange).
January 18, 2003... With the discovery since 1995 of more than 100 planets beyond the solar system, finding yet another one might seem more of a yawn than hot news. But the latest detection of an extrasolar planet smashes several records: At 5,000 light-years from...

Finding might explain a danger of Viagra. (Blood-Clot Surprise).
January 18, 2003... For a fraction of 1 percent of the men who take sildenafil, the impotence-fighting pill known as Viagra, sex comes with nasty side effects: heart attack and sometimes death. However, scientists have never linked the deaths directly to the drug,...

Southern reindeer folk: as far from Santa as the old herders go.(reindeer in Darkhat Valley of Mongolia)
January 18, 2003... Paula DePriest was thrilled when she finally got the chance to see the species that she studies as they were being chewed up by the grazer for which they're named. She didn't even mind having to go halfway around the world and travel via...

Delivering the goods: gene therapy without the virus.
January 18, 2003... Gene therapy has been on a roller coaster in recent years. Experiments in adding genes directly to patients' cells have shown promising signs, but the technical and clinical momentum has been drained repeatedly by bad results. These include the...

Old legend dies hard. (Archaeology).(mummy's curse associated with those who entered King Tutankhamen's tomb dispelled)(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... Despite the legendary curse of the mummy, archaeologists and aristocrats who entered King Tutankhamen's tomb over 7 decades ago lived about as long as their peers, according to an unusual historical study. Mark R. Nelson of Monash...

Mars reveals more frozen water. (Astronomy).(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... Planetary scientists have discovered another reservoir of frozen water on Mars. Using the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, researchers have discovered ice near the edge of Mars' south polar cap, which is usually covered by frozen carbon dioxide. ...

It's a tough job, but native bees can do it. (Biology).(North American bee)(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... Conservationists fretting about the dwindling of North American bee species have new evidence of the insects' importance. North American farmers typically rely on a single European honeybee species to pollinate crops, explains Claire Kremen...

Cheap hypertension drug works best. (Biomedicine).(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... An old-fashioned pill for preventing high blood pressure and some heart disease appears to work better than newer, more expensive drugs, according to the most recent research. In a 5-year study at 623 health centers, physicians compared the...

Drug protects mouse eggs from radiation. (Biomedicine).(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... A drug that might preserve the fertility of women undergoing radiation treatment for cancer has met an important challenge. Female mice treated with the drug and then irradiated give birth to healthy offspring, according to a new study. ...

Why didn't the beetle cross the road? (Environment).(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... A road that a person strolls across with barely a thought proves a deadly barrier for many other creatures and can disrupt the usual traffic of their genes throughout a population. Most of the recent studies of this effect have focused on...

Stroke protection: a little fish helps. (Food And Nutrition).(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... Eating as little as one serving of fish per month may reduce a man's risk of certain strokes by 40 percent, a new study finds. Indeed, eating fish more frequently offers no additional benefit, the data suggest. More than 80 percent of...

Predicting geomagnetic storms. (Astronomy).(Brief Article)
January 18, 2003... Eruptions from the sun's outer atmosphere can hurl million-ton clouds of electrically charged ions toward Earth. Moreover, solar flares spew high-energy X rays and high-speed charged particles. Recent observations with an Earth-orbiting...

Coral Reefs: Cities Under the Sea.(Book Review)
January 18, 2003... With the benefit of hundreds of glorious color photographs of fish, reefs, and underwater scenery, this guidebook provides an in-depth look at how coral reefs function and how they benefit people. Murphy explains that coral reefs are...

Darwin's Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection.(Book Review)
January 18, 2003... Aggression and competition drive Charles Darwin's model of evolution: survival of the fittest. Ryan, however, argues that symbiosis, which he calls selection of the fittest, is an equal component of evolution. Not to give Darwin short shrift,...

The Einstein Scrapbook.(Book Review)
January 18, 2003... The curator of the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem presents an engaging kaleidoscope of documents and photographs from Einstein's personal effects. The collection provides an interesting window through which to...

The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos.(Book Review)
January 18, 2003... For the past 30 years, Kirshner has been among the leading researchers studying the nature of exploding stars known as supernovae. He takes readers to the heart of this pursuit by revealing the stunning finding of his team--that the universe is...

In War and Peace: My Life in Science and Technology.(Book Review)
January 18, 2003... During his distinguished career, Stever has served as science advisor to two presidents (Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford), director of the National Science Foundation, and chief scientist of the Air Force. He was also president of Carnegie Tech...

Yum yum. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
January 18, 2003... While reading your article regarding the primitive antibodies found in lancelets ("First Line of Defense: Hints of primitive antibodies," SN: 11/9/02, p. 294), it occurred to me that complex immune systems might be merely a highly specialized,...

Bright idea. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
January 18, 2003... "Jet Astronomy" (SN: 11/9/02, p. 299) notes that X-ray radiation from XTE J1550-54 jets is puzzling because the radiation of the nearer jet, which is moving toward Earth, isn't as bright as that of the more distant jet. Perhaps as a jet strikes...

Chip Shot. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
January 18, 2003... "Hidden Costs: It takes much stuff to make one tiny chip" (SN: 11/16/02, p. 309) describes the economic and environmental costs of semiconductor chips. Interestingly, the impacts on the environment are very similar for the manufacture of solar...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 18, 2003... In "Unfounded Fear: Scared to fly after 9/11? Don't reach for the car keys" (SN: 1/11/03, p. 20), we miscalculated the risk of death per kilometer traveled on commercial airline flights from the researchers' findings. Our figure should have...

Wings aplenty: dinosaur species had feathered hind limbs.
January 25, 2003... A team of Chinese paleontologists has discovered two nearly complete fossils of a small, feathered dinosaur that they say had four wings. The new species may represent an intermediate on the path to today's birds. The slim creature, which...

In the beginning: dark matter builds galaxies, feeds quasars.
January 25, 2003... Cosmologists say they've found compelling evidence that massive galaxies were already in place when the universe was less than a billion years old. Aided by vast amounts of unseen matter, these galaxies pulled in enough material to produce the...

One-two poison: scorpion starts with a cheap shot.
January 25, 2003... A South African scorpion economizes as it stings, injecting a simple mix first, followed by a venom that's more complicated to produce. The first droplet from the stinger of the Parabuthus transvaalicus scorpion consists mostly of a...

Too much of a good thing: excess vitamin A may hike bone-fracture rate.
January 25, 2003... Dietary studies have suggested that people who consume large amounts of vitamin A in foods, multivitamins, or both are more likely to suffer hip fractures than are people who ingest modest amounts. New evidence bolsters these findings....

Fiber helper: minuscule controllers may open data floodgates.
January 25, 2003... Speeding up the Internet and other long-distance data networks is an expensive proposition. To reach planned transmission rates of 40 billion bits per second (Gb/s)--up from today's maximum rate of 10 Gb/s--telecommunications companies would...

Unnatural biochemistry: bacteria make and use an alien amino acid.
January 25, 2003... Almost all organisms assemble proteins from the same 20 natural building blocks, known as amino acids. But now, in a feat of genetic engineering, researchers have for the first time constructed an organism that synthesizes and incorporates a...

Smells like emotion: brain splits duties to sniff out feelings.
January 25, 2003... The inner-brain structure known as the amygdala is getting an emotional makeover. Fingered in many studies as the brain's fear center, the amygdala actually takes charge of assessing the emotional intensity of both pleasant and unpleasant...

From bone to brain: transplanted male bone marrow makes nerve cells in women and girls.
January 25, 2003... An unusual study of the brains of women and girls who had received transplants of bone marrow from men indicates that marrow cells can transform into nerve cells. Researchers found that each female brain had nerve cells containing a Y...

Planet formation on the fast track: growing up in a hurry.
January 25, 2003... It's textbook astronomy. Planets form little by little as material slowly congeals within the disk of gas, dust, and ice known to swaddle young stars. First, gravity gathers together bits of dust, which merge to form boulder-size bodies, which...

Getting the bugs out of blood: the quest for a zero-risk blood supply.
January 25, 2003... Over the past few years, the crows in much of the Eastern United States fell silent. Many of the birds were victims of the emerging pathogen called West Nile virus. Originally from Africa, the virus entered the United States only a few years...