Science News articles from January 2004

Science News archives from January 2004

In neutrons and protons, quarks take wrong turns.(Topsy Turvy)
January 3, 2004... Physicists peering inside the neutron are seeing glimmers of what appears to be an impossible situation. The vexing findings pertain to quarks, which are the main components of neutrons and protons. The quarks, in essence, spin like tops, as do...

Nursing, feeding spot found off south Chile.(Whale Haunt)
January 3, 2004... A systematic survey has discovered a hangout for blue whales in the Gulf of Corcovado, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean between the southern Chilean mainland and the largest of the Chilean Islands. Last year, 47 blue whale groups, some including...

Outdoor data underrate pollutant exposure.(My Own Private Bad-Air Day)
January 3, 2004... A new study suggests that most people inhale substantially more organic contaminants, including cancer-causing benzene, than is indicated by standard environmental risk assessments based on outdoor measurements. "Ambient measurements at...

Tiny skull puts Asia at root of primate tree.(Ancestral Handful)
January 3, 2004... Researchers have unearthed the partial skull of the oldest known primate, a teeny creature that lived in south-central China 55 million years ago. The discovery extends the geographic reach of the ancient genus Teilhardina into Asia, say...

Orbiting radar spots old nuclear-test sites.(Blasts from the Past)
January 3, 2004... Satellite analysis can reveal sites of past underground nuclear tests, U.S. government scientists report. The technique can detect the settling of ground above blasts that occurred decades ago, before current monitoring networks were...

Inhibiting immune compound slows sepsis.(Pivotal Protein)
January 3, 2004... By restraining the action of an immune system protein that can run amok, scientists experimenting on mice have reversed the course of severe sepsis, an often-lethal blood infection that shuts down vital organs. The work suggests that...

Ultrasensitive nanowires catch mutations.(Gene Screen)
January 3, 2004... In the nanoworld, the division between wet biology and dry electronics can disappear. As a demonstration, researchers have devised a nanowire sensor that binds to DNA molecules and produces an electrical signal almost instantaneously. Such...

Next stop, interstellar space: Voyager journeys to the edge of the solar system.
January 3, 2004... On the interplanetary highway, there are no mile markers and no exit signs. Precious few clues indicate that you're nearing the edge of the solar system. Those clues, however, are revealing that the venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched 26...

Is much of college wasted on the young? What would a great university education mean to you now?
January 3, 2004... Now thousands of adult learners are finding out, through college courses by top teachers captured on audiotape, videotape, CD, or DVD for enjoyment in your home or car. How often have you looked back on your college learning years and...

Thin skin: desert's fragile crust takes millennia to form but only moments to destroy.(Cover Story)
January 3, 2004... As they barreled across the desert toward Baghdad during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last March, the tanks, trucks, and armored personnel carriers churned up huge clouds of dust. Iraqi vehicles mobilized to defend against the onslaught...

Protein found central to ecstasy fever.(Biomedicine)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2004... Scientists have identified a protein contributing to the high fevers that are sometimes generated by 3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamin, the drug better known as ecstasy. Debate about the stimulant intensified recently with the retraction of...

Lunar finding doesn't hold water.(Astronomy)(moon may not have ice on its poles)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2004... Only a few years ago, planetary scientists were excited by reports that shady craters at the moon's poles might contain substantial amounts of ice. The hydrogen in frozen water could serve as rocket fuel for space explorers. But new radar...

Earth sometimes shivers beneath thick blankets of ice.(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2004... New analyses of old seismic data have unveiled a previously unrecognized type of earthquake--quakes created by brief surges of massive glaciers. When fault zones slip, they emit most of their stored energy as high-frequency ground motions,...

Alaska shook, mountains spoke.(Earth Science)(2002 earthquake in Alaska)
January 3, 2004... The largest inland earthquake to strike North America in more than a century shook south central Alaska on Nov. 3, 2002 (SN: 11/16/02, p. 307). Small pulses in atmospheric pressure detected in Fairbanks soon after the quake suggest that the...

Newfound fault may explain quakes.(Seismology)(earthquakes in 1755 in Lisbon, Portugal)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2004... On the morning of Nov. 1, 1755, the thriving port city of Lisbon, Portugal, was devastated by three earthquakes, the tsunamis they triggered, and an ensuing fire. Tens of thousands of residents lost their lives. Now, tsunami simulations suggest...

New technique dates glaze on desert rocks.(Technology)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2004... Scientists have developed a quick, easy, portable, and nondestructive way to determine the age of desert varnish, the mysterious dark coating that slowly develops on rocks in many arid regions of the world (see p. 11). Desert varnish is...

The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 3, 2004... SHERWIN B. NULAND Today, even young children know to wash their hands before they eat or after they go to the bathroom. In mid-19th-century Vienna, however, the idea of washing one's hands to stop the spread of disease was subversive. At...

The Feynman Lectures on Physics Volume 1: Quantum Mechanics Volume 2: Advanced Quantum Mechanics.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 3, 2004... RICHARD R FEYNMAN Richard P. Feynman was a Nobel prize-winning physicist who not only advanced quantum electrodynamics but was also famous for his outgoing personality and keen ability to impart complicated ideas to a lay audience. For...

Magic Universe: The Oxford Guide to Modern Science.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 3, 2004... NIGEL CALDER Science is ever changing and endless. Hence, Calder addresses the myriad directions of modern science. Although the stories he presents in this book are arranged A to Z, Calder argues that this isn't an encyclopedia, it's an...

Prehistoric Past Revealed: The Four-Billion-Year History of Life on Earth.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 3, 2004... DOUGLAS PALMER In 200 pages, Palmer traces the 4-billion-year geological history of Earth, as revealed by research over the past two centuries. Loaded with photographs and illustrations, this book reads like the program of an elaborate...

The Universal Book of Astronomy: From the Andromeda Galaxy to the Zone of Avoidance.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 3, 2004... DAVID DARLING You want to gawk at 150 hot young stars? Darling says look not to a Hollywood party but to the Arches cluster--stars at the center of the Milky Way crammed into a space roughly one light-year across. Darling is a noted...

Old, cold facts.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 3, 2004... That draining wetlands leads to a greater likelihood of frosts and freezes in southern Florida ("Frosty Florida: Spread of agriculture may promote freezes," SN: 11/8/03, p. 292) was noted nearly a century ago. In The Commodore's Story (1930, R....

Where were you?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 3, 2004... "Forgetting to Remember: Emotion robs memory while reviving it" (SN: 11/8/03, p. 293) says that emotions can both decrease and enhance memories of specific events. It's been over 40 years since President John F. Kennedy was murdered, and I can...

Lively debate.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 3, 2004... In "Martian Invasion" (SN: 11/8/03, p. 298), the white cliffs of Dover are offered as a "notable example" of the precipitated carbonate deposits some have expected to find had Mars been wet and warm in the past. The Dover chalks are an...

Explore math with Theoni Pappas.(Bibliography)
January 3, 2004... As we look around us, occasionally we see subtle impressions of the presence of mathematics. Some are current; some are left from past centuries. Tracking and discovering the trail of mathematical footprints is both fascinating and rewarding....

Spacecraft samples and views Wild 2.(Taste of a Comet)
January 10, 2004... Pummeled by dusty debris traveling six times as fast as a rifle bullet, a NASA space-craft last week snatched up dust samples while taking the sharpest images ever of the icy core of a comet. Comets are considered to be pristine leftovers from...

Disease's U.S. emergence highlights role of feed ban.(Cow Madness)(mad cow disease)
January 10, 2004... The first appearance in the United States of the cattle-killing ailment known as mad cow disease has rocked the beef industry and raised fears of an outbreak of a similar deadly brain disease in people. However, the threat to both people and...

Reflective protein causes squid to shimmer.(Moonlighting)
January 10, 2004... As the Hawaiian bobtail squid glides through the ocean on moonlit nights, when darkness alone wouldn't cloak it, reflective materials in its tissues render the animal invisible. Biologists have long known that squid and other cephalopods such...

Brain may block out undesired memories.(Neural Road to Repression)
January 10, 2004... Memory requires collaboration between different brain structures. So does forgetting, a new study suggests. Two neural regions join forces to enable people to suppress unwanted memories, say psychologist Michael C. Anderson of the...

Electronic workhorses also shed light.(Flashy Transistors)
January 10, 2004... Researchers have discovered that the transistor, long the star of electronics, has a yet-untapped talent--emitting light. With that newfound capability, the transistor could also become a stellar device for optical uses, such as computer...

Aspirin use linked to pancreatic cancer.(Going against the Grain)
January 10, 2004... In a finding that runs counter to prevailing wisdom, scientists have associated aspirin use with cancer of the pancreas. Since past studies linked chronic inflammation to various malignancies, the researchers had expected the...

A tale of two landers: NASA's Spirit phones home, but Europe's Beagle 2 remains mum on Mars.(This Week)
January 10, 2004... NASA's latest emissary to Mars, the rover called Spirit, triggered cheers and high fives among mission members when it sent its first signals home soon after touching down on the Red Planet on Jan. 3. In stark contrast, somber but hopeful...

News that's fit to print--and preserve: how long can libraries hold on to their newspaper collections?
January 10, 2004... The daily news has been described as the first draft of history. From the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the cloning of Dolly the sheep, newspapers record the myriad events that shape our lives. Preserving old newspapers, many...

Infrasonic symphony: the greatest sounds never heard.
January 10, 2004... Let me start off with a riddle," says NASA scientist Allan J. Zuckerwar. In his office in Hampton, Va., he rattles off items as dissimilar as rhinoceroses, supersonic aircraft, and hurricanes. "Now, what do they have in common?" The answer,...

Brain gene is tied to obesity.(Biology)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2004... Researchers studying the DNA of people in Finland and Sweden have amassed evidence that a gene involved in brain chemistry influences whether a person is thin or fat. Few specific genes have been convincingly linked to human obesity. A...

SARS vaccine triggers immunity in monkeys.(Biomedicine)(severe acute respiratory syndrome)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2004... An experimental vaccine against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus has elicited a strong immune response against the virus in a test on monkeys, the vaccine's developers report. Immunologist Andrea Gambotto and his...

X-ray images highlight galaxy collisions.(Astronomy)(galaxy NGC 4261)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2004... Viewed in visible light, the elliptical galaxy NGC 4261 looks positively sedate. But a new X-ray image reveals evidence of a violent past--a trail more than 50 light-years across and rife with black holes and neutron stars. The trail indicates...

When testosterone gets down and dirty.(Environment)(effects of testosterone in water supply)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2004... Testosterone, the primary male sex hormone, or androgen, migrates in the environment in ways that could pose a threat to water quality, according to three new reports. Soil physicist Francis X.M. Casey of North Dakota State University in...

Select immune cells help marrow grafts.(Transplants)
January 10, 2004... By excising certain immune cells from donor bone marrow, physicians have devised a new and possibly more versatile way of performing marrow transplants. These transplants give healthy, blood-producing cells to people with diseases such as...

Novel drug fights leukemia leukemia.(Chemotherapy)(tipifarnib)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2004... An experimental drug helps a small but significant fraction of people with acute myeloid leukemia and causes minimal side effects, research suggests. The modest success of the drug tipifarnib is encouraging because the blood cancer is...

Thalidomide-like drug treats blood disorder.(Drug Trials)(CC5033 compound)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2004... A novel drug appears to help people with myelodysplasia, a persistent condition that leaves them short of crucial blood components. The drug could become the first treatment specifically for the condition, says Alan List of the University of...

Age-related anemia hastens death.(Epidemiology)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2004... People whose blood concentrations of hemoglobin decrease as they age are at elevated risk for serious ailments and early death, researchers have found. Anemia, an inadequate supply of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, is rare among young and...

Earth.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 10, 2004... JAMES F. LUHR, ED. Using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, Luhr has created a dynamic and visually stimulating look at Earth from the inside out. Divided into five sections, this massive volume explores the land, ocean, atmosphere,...

The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 10, 2004... AMY STEWART Being blind, deaf, and spineless, earthworms would seem to lack the tools to be high-impact players in life on Earth. Yet these creatures are pivotal for their role in cleaning and enriching the soil that sustains virtually...

The Illustrated Theory of Everything.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 10, 2004... STEPHEN W. HAWKING Hawking is widely viewed as the greatest living astrophysicist and one of the most brilliant scientific minds ever. In his book A Brief History of Time, he gracefully defined his field for the nonscientist. In that same...

Out-Of-This-World Astronomy: 50 Amazing Activities and Projects.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 10, 2004... JOE RHATIGAN AND RAIN NEWCOMB Demanding only common household items, the activities outlined in this book nevertheless demonstrate astronomical principles. For example, youngsters learn about the moon's phases using a basketball and a...

Upright: The Evolutionary Key to Becoming Human.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 10, 2004... CRAIG STANFORD What one thing made us human? Was it the capacity for language, an oversize brain, or opposable thumbs? According to Stanford, it's none of these things. The linchpin of personhood is simply our inclination to walk upright...

Let's kick it around.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 10, 2004... "The Shape of Space" (SN: 11/8/03, p. 296) cites reports that the shape of the universe is that of a soccer ball. An image in the article shows that the soccer ball appears as a mirror image of itself when viewed through each of its faces. If...

Bad news.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 10, 2004... "Bioengineered crops have mixed eco effects" (SN: 11/15/03, p. 317) was such a wonderful example of reporter bias that I had to share it with my children. Growing genetically modified, herbicide-resistant beets and canola "lowers the abundance...

Gossamer, ha!(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 10, 2004... The article "Will Climate Change Depose Monarchs? Model predicts too-wet winter refuges" (SN: 11/15/03, p. 310), implying the demise of the unique Mexico-Canada migration, seems too pessimistic. Monarchs have shown a great degree of...

A solid like no other: frigid, solid helium streams like a liquid.(This Week)
January 17, 2004... Captured within the cavities of a porous glass disk, frozen helium has coalesced into a long-awaited, but never-before-observed, quantum phase of matter, a team of physicists claims. In that extraordinary state, known as a superfluid solid or...

Clear airways: quelling a protein stops mucus overload.(This Week)
January 17, 2004... Despite its lowly status, mucus plays a valuable role in the body. It provides a barrier against pathogens and lubricates tissues lining the air passages, gastrointestinal tract, and several other areas of the body. Too much mucus, however, can...

Astronomy: man bites dog; planet heats its star.(This Week)
January 17, 2004... Observing a sunlike star 90 light-years from Earth, astronomers have found evidence of an extraordinary role reversal. Whereas a star usually heats a planet, a closely orbiting planet appears to be, in this case, heating its star. ...

Marine superglue: mussels get stickiness from iron in seawater.(This Week)
January 17, 2004... As inhabitants of rugged shores, mussels have an amazing capacity to stick to rocks, despite the constant pounding of waves. These organisms are also notorious for sticking to ships, glass, and, well, just about anything--even Teflon. ...

Bogged down: ancient peat may be missing methane source.(This Week)
January 17, 2004... Field studies in Russia indicate that massive peat bogs there may have been a major source of atmospheric methane just after the end of the last ice age. Chemical analyses of the gases trapped in ice cores drilled from sites around the...

9/11's fatal road toll: terror attacks presaged rise in U.S. car deaths.(This Week)
January 17, 2004... The crashes of four airplanes and the massive loss of life in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks traumatized people throughout the nation. Tragically, in the last 3 months of that year, fear of flying revved up car use and caused a second...

Cheap taste? Bowerbirds go for bargain decor.(This Week)
January 17, 2004... When male spotted bowerbirds collect sticks and other doodads to wow females, these natural interior decorators don't search for the rare showpiece, according to a new study. Biologists have wondered whether male bowerbirds try to show off...

When to change sex: a handy guide from biologists.
January 17, 2004... Hollywood does sensationalize, so the unnatural sex-role behavior in last summer s cartoon hit Finding Nemo shouldn't have surprised fish biologists. In the movie, a male clownfish loses his mate and most of their offspring in an attack on...

Fear not: scientists are learning how people can unlearn fear.
January 17, 2004... What are you afraid of? Do snakes or spiders get your heart racing? Or do your palms begin to sweat if you have to fly or give a public presentation? For many people, these situations trigger the adrenaline-fueled stress reaction that's...

Electronic skin senses touch.(Technology)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... Someday, robots swathed in pressure-sensitive electronics may feel their environment. That's the vision of Japanese researchers who have laminated a rubbery, pressure-sensing membrane onto a flexible layer of plastic transistors to create a...

Could refrigeration explain Crohn's rise?(Biomedicine)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... The cause of the small-intestinal inflammation called Crohn's disease is a mystery. Researchers in France now hypothesize that the widespread use of refrigeration has permitted certain bacteria to linger longer than other microbes do in food....

This pollutant fights lupus.(Environment)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... Several studies have implicated estrogen, the primary female sex hormone, in fostering a serious autoimmune disease called lupus. That's why scientists had expected that bisphenol-A (BPA), an estrogen-mimicking ingredient of polycarbonate...

Human genes take evolutionary turns.(Genetics)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... Scientists have identified a set of genes that has evolved an extensive pattern of alterations unique to people, at least when compared with corresponding genes in chimpanzees and mice. Specific molecular adjustments to these genes benefited...

Tapping sun's light and heat to make hydrogen.(Technology)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... Environmentally friendly fuel cells may someday power most cars, homes, and industries. Yet the energy they supply won't be all that clean if the hydrogen that the fuel cells consume derives from fossil fuels. So says Stuart Licht of the...

hovers in atom capsule.(Physics)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... In the past few years, physicists have shown that they can bring light pulses to a dead stop. That feat relies on a method of temporarily imprinting the quantum essence of a pulse by changing certain characteristics of atoms (SN: 2/9/02, p....

Nanowires grow on viral templates.(Materials Science)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... When materials scientist Angela Belcher set out to build electronic circuits using building blocks the size of viruses, she took the challenge quite literally. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher has made semiconducting...

Dog personality: his master's traits.(Behavior)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2004... In the first study of personality differences among dogs, psychologist Samuel D. Gosling of the University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues have found that certain personality traits differ as much among dogs as they do among people. ...

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things.(Book Review)
January 17, 2004... DONALD A. NORMAN When Volkswagen reintroduced the Beetle in 1993 and Chrysler challenged with the PT Cruiser a few years later, car buyers swept the two cars up. This success was due largely to the way cars looked. The designers keyed in...

Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity.(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 17, 2004... ERIC R. PIANKA AND LAURIE J. VITT Pianka and Vitt's fascination with lizards began in childhood and has blossomed into careers as professors of zoology. In this carefully researched book, they tell in detail what they've learned about the...

Petra Rediscovered: Lost City of the Nabataeans.(Book Review)
January 17, 2004... GLENN MARKOE, ED. From the third century B.C. through the first century A.D., the City of Petra flourished at the intersection of two major trade routes of the Middle East, one running from Syria south to the Red Sea, the other from the...

Strange Curves, Counting Rabbits: and other Mathematical Explorations.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 17, 2004... KEITH BALL The applications of mathematics are myriad, yet most of us are generally unaware of them. Ball draws on areas of mathematics including probability theory, number theory, and geometry to explore a wide range of concepts we use...

Weather!(Brief Article)(Children's Review)(Book Review)
January 17, 2004... REBECCA RUPP Lessons about how weather works preface 22 cool experiments that illustrate various weather topics. A section on atmosphere discusses the nature of air and then shows kids how to measure air pressure with a homemade barometer...

See the light.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 17, 2004... "Vision Seekers: Giving eyesight to the blind raises questions about how people see" (SN: 11/22/03, p. 331) brought to mind what could be a biblical description of this phenomenon. In Mark 8:22-26, a blind man reports after an initial healing...

Old mountain.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 17, 2004... The irregular satellites of the outer planets are interesting, as reported in "Moonopolies" (SN: 11/22/03, p. 328), but my heart paused when I read "the medium-size Hale Telescope." That historic 200-inch telescope was the largest in the world...

Equal opportunity.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 17, 2004... Sounds like "Bias Bites Back: Racial prejudice may sap mental control" (SN: 11/22/03, p. 325) is on to a fertile field of inquiry. But why were all the subjects who were tested for racial bias white? I suggest that people of other colors be...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
January 17, 2004... The image in "Dune leapfrogging is deciphered" (SN: 12/20&27/03, p. 397) should have been rotated 180 degrees, the dunes moving left to right and proceeding horns first, with the top-to-bottom order of the sequence reversed. In the same issue,...

Might a simple sugar derail Huntington's?(Cluster Buster)
January 24, 2004... People with Huntington's disease gradually lose neurons in their brains as defective protein molecules clump together inside those cells. Scientists in Japan now report that a simple sugar called trehalose can impede this protein aggregation in...

Mars rover begins scientific work.(Spirit Gets Its Wheels Dirty)
January 24, 2004... A tiny visitor to Mars last week ventured off its landing pad and sank its six wheels into the planet's rust-colored dirt. This week, Spirit, the rover that NASA landed on Mars on Jan. 3 (SN: 1/10/04, p. 22), went for its first stroll. Taking...

Papaya: glimpse of early sex chromosome.(Dawn of the Y)
January 24, 2004... The papaya plant carries the youngest Y chromosome ever found, reports a research team. That sex chromosome is so new evolutionarily that it doesn't have the stripped-down style of full-fledged Y chromosomes. The papaya chromosome carrying the...

Compounds trigger tumor-cell suicide.(Pushing Cancer over the Edge)
January 24, 2004... Cancer cells are a picture of conflict. Seemingly aware of the danger they themselves pose, these abnormal cells often try to commit suicide by activating destructive enzymes called caspases. But as if simultaneously compelled by a...

Slumber may fortify memory, stir insight.(Sleeper Effects)
January 24, 2004... There's nothing like a good night's sleep to get some serious thinking done. That, at least, is the theme of two new investigations, one conducted with rodents and the other with people. Rats permitted to explore novel objects display...

Particles enter the nervous system via the nose.(Conduit to the Brain)
January 24, 2004... Like stealthy intruders, minute airborne particles can apparently invade the brain through a vulnerable portal. At least some such particles, when inhaled into the nose, shimmy up the nerve bundle that governs smell and infiltrate the central...

Some undersea landslides ride a nearly frictionless slick of water.(Scooting on a Wet Bottom)
January 24, 2004... Hydroplaning, the traction-sapping phenomenon that makes high-speed driving dangerous on rainy days, may be responsible for the unexpectedly large distances covered by some undersea avalanches, according to new computer simulations. ...

Reef relations: DNA shared by people and coral sheds light on animal evolution.
January 24, 2004... The reef-building coral Acropora millepora does not have a lot on its mind. In fact, it doesn't have a mind at all. The invertebrate has only a diffuse net of nerve cells, one of the simplest nervous systems of any animal. Thus, it shocked...