Science News articles from January 2005

Science News archives from January 2005

Sweet glow: nanotube sensor brightens path to glucose detection.(This Week)
January 1, 2005... Biomedical engineers have developed a new kind of glucose sensor, based on carbon nanotubes, that could free people with diabetes from the daily pinprick tests now required for monitoring blood sugar concentrations. Michael S. Strano and...

Climate storm: Kyoto pact is confirmed, but conflict continues.(This Week)
January 1, 2005... An international meeting that was supposed to cement environmental rules stemming from the 1997 Kyoto treaty on global warming ended with little consensus besides an agreement to hold more discussions. The meeting, held Dec. 6 to 17, 2004,...

Young and near: baby galaxies roam our backyard.(This Week)
January 1, 2005... Youthful versions of massive galaxies like our Milky Way may be only a cosmic stone's throw away. That's the finding of an ultraviolet-detecting satellite that has identified 36 such galaxies. Since 1995, astronomers have detected more than...

Joining the resistance: drug-immune microbes waft over hogs.(This Week)
January 1, 2005... The air in a modern farm building contains many bacteria that are invulnerable to several antibiotics, according to a new report. The finding suggests that drug-resistant microbes can spread by air from animals to people. Bacteria on farms...

One-two punch vaccine fights herpes with antibodies, T cells.(This Week)
January 1, 2005... An experimental vaccine tested in animals incites a double-edged immune reaction against the virus that causes genital herpes. The finding may pave the way for tests in people. The vaccine stirred up both antibodies and immune cells against...

Sudden civilized: new finds push back Americas' first society.(This Week)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The earliest known civilization in the Americas emerged about 5,000 years ago in what's now Peru, a team of archaeologists finds. Until now, it wasn't clear that the Peruvian sites examined were older than about 3,800 years or that they had...

Fallout feast: vent crabs survive on victims of plume.(This Week)
January 1, 2005... In an undersea twist on the family dog appearing just as pizza slips off a plate, crabs at Taiwan's shallow-water hydrothermal vents swarm to feast on the gentle rain of plankton killed whenever toxic plumes shoot straight up from the vents....

Concrete nation: bright future for ancient material.
January 1, 2005... Each year, billions of tons of concrete become the stuff of buildings, highways, dams, sidewalks, and even artworks. The list goes on. Not only is the material ubiquitous, it has a long history. Romans invented cement-based concrete more than...

Hidden canyons: vast seabed chasms are carved by riverlike processes.(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... In April 2003, scientists on the German research vessel Meteor were cruising toward a site off the arid northwestern coast of Africa. On a mission to examine the erosion that sculpts the ocean floor, the crew was anxious to reach the study site...

Microscope goes mini.(Technology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The atomic force microscope (ATM) has contributed dramatically to shrinking the scale at which scientists can make out details of objects. Invented in 1986, the instrument records the shapes of samples by dragging a sharp-tipped cantilever over...

Vitamin C and diabetes: risky mix?(Food & Nutrition)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Uncontrolled blood sugar can promote the production of unhealthy oxidation reactions in a person's blood. These reactions foster many diseases, such as atheroselerosis. That's why researchers have long suspected that supplementing the diet with...

Fossil ape makes evolutionary debut.(Anthropology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... A roughly 13-million-year-old partial skeleton unearthed in northeastern Spain comes from a creature that, according to its discoverers, was a key evolutionary precursor of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and people. A team led by...

Male contraceptive shows promise in monkeys.(Immunology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Women have numerous birth control methods to choose from, but men have only two main options: condoms or vasectomy. New research is pointing toward a third alternative, a shot that primes the immune system against a protein critical for...

Alpine glaciers on a hasty retreat.(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Comparisons of satellite images, aerial photos, and old surveys of Alpine glaciers indicate that the ice masses are losing area at an accelerating rate. Between 1973 and 1999, the total area covered by almost 940 Swiss glaciers fell by 18...

Apes, monkeys split earlier than fossils had indicated.(Anthropology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The evolutionary precursors of modern apes and people diverged from ancient monkeys between 29 million and 34.5 million years ago, a new genetic analysis concludes. This evolutionary parting of the ways had previously been placed at between 23...

Paper wasps object to dishonest face spots.(Biology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... If the spots on the face of a female paper wasp don't look appropriate for her rank, another female gets extra aggressive, according to a new study of wasp fights. "It's the most conclusive evidence yet that honest visual signalers are...

Tobacco treaty on its way.(Science & Society)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... On Nov. 30, 2004, Peru became the 40th country to ratify the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (SN: 7/5/03, p. 14). As a result, the accord will soon become international law. Officials of WHO, a United...

Taking on a lethal blood cancer.(Lymphoma)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is mainly a malignancy of antibody-making immune cells called B lymphocytes. While drugs have helped many patients fend off some forms of this cancer, an aggressive form known as mantle-cell lymphoma often recurs after...

Viagra eases lung pressure in patients.(Sickle Cell Diseases)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Roughly one-third of adults with sickle-cell disease develop increased blood pressure in the lungs. This debilitating condition, called pulmonary hypertension, constricts lung arteries. The backpressure that results can lead to heart failure....

Drug counters severe platelet shortage.(Autoimmunity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... People with a condition called immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) make antibodies that destroy platelets, which are required for blood to clot. Because of their platelet shortages, ITP patients live in fear of bumps and serapes and "can't...

Expanding the therapeutic arsenal.(Leukemia)
January 1, 2005... Two experimental pills can send chronic myeloid leukemia into remission in some patients who don't benefit from the best available medicine, early results from three studies show. In many patients with this blood cancer, the genes encoding...

Archives of the Universe: a Treasury of Astronomy's Historic Works of Discovery.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... ARCHIVES OF THE UNIVERSE: A Treasury of Astronomy's Historic Works of Discovery MARCIA BARTUSIAK Science writer Bartusiak tells the history of astronomy through the words of the greatest thinkers the field has known. She presents excerpts...

The New Brain: How the Modern Age is Rewiring Your Mind.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... THE NEW BRAIN: HOW the Modern Age IS Rewiring Your Mind RICHARD RESTAK The advent of imaging techniques such as CAT, PET, and MRI has revolutionized brain science. Neuroscientists no longer have to open a skull to examine a brain and its...

Orangutans: Wizards of the Rainforest.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... ORANGUTANS: Wizards of the Rainforest ANNE E. RUSSON Orangutans are almost exclusively arboreal travelers and inherently hard to observe in the forest canopy. On the other hand, captive orangutans exhibit a great deal of stress and so...

Essential Atlas of Physics and Chemistry.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... ESSENTIAL ATLAS OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY JORDI LLANSANA For students who find math to be a stumbling block in grasping chemistry and physics, this book offers the important concepts of these fields in clear text and useful diagrams....

Projects for the Birder's Garden: Over 100 Easy Things That you Can Make to Turn Your Yard and Garden into a Bird-Friendly Haven.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... PROJECTS FOR THE BIRDER'S GARDEN: Over 100 Easy Things That You Can Make to Turn Your Yard and Garden into a Bird-Friendly Haven FERN MARSHALL BRADLEY, ED. This guide offers dozens of ideas for easy, low-cost ways a person can attract...

Just the facts.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... My response as an educator to much of the outrageous science depicted in so many of the recent blockbuster hits is very different from that of many of the scientists quoted ("What's Wrong with This Picture?" SN: 10/16/04, p. 250). The films...

Tsunami disaster: scientists model the big quake and its consequences.(This Week)
January 8, 2005... The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck the ocean bottom west of Indonesia on the morning of Dec. 26, 2004, triggered several tsunamis that killed an estimated 145,000 coastal residents and tourists, claiming lives on shores even thousands of...

Beat generation: genetically modified stem cells repair heart.(This Week)
January 8, 2005... In experiments on guinea pigs, scientists have used genetically modified human embryonic stem cells to make a biological pacemaker. The implanted tissue has kept the guinea pig hearts beating after their natural pacemaker cells were destroyed....

Temples of boom: ancient Hawaiians took fast road to statehood.(This Week)
January 8, 2005... Around 400 years ago, the residents of two Hawaiian islands built stone temples at a dizzying pace over the course of a generation or two, a new study finds. A construction boom of that kind and magnitude reflected the surprisingly rapid...

Reflections on insecticides: mirror forms of agrochemicals set risk.(This Week)(understanding enantiomers will develop less environmentally hazardous agrochemicals)
January 8, 2005... Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what's the most hazardous pesticide form of all? Such is the question that scientists and regulators should be asking as they evaluate the environmental effects of pesticides, new research suggests. Many...

Bad combo? Some antidepressants may hamper breast cancer drug.(This Week)(serotonin reuptake inhibitors an antidepressant diminish the effect of tamoxifen drug)
January 8, 2005... By impeding estrogen's cancer-promoting properties, the drug tamoxifen has enabled thousands of breast cancer patients to fend off recurrences. But taking tamoxifen increases the frequency of hot flashes, and many women use antidepressants to...

Twinkle toes: how geckos' sticky feet stay clean.(This Week)
January 8, 2005... So strong is the stickiness of some geckos' feet that the lizards can hang from a ceiling by a single toe. Despite that dinginess, the forest of adhesive fibers on the underside of each toe stays nearly dirtfree without grooming or washing. ...

Mixing genes: bird immigrants make unexpected differences.(This Week)(immigration brings in genes and effects diverse population in birds)
January 8, 2005... A pair of decades-long studies of birds moving into other birds' neighborhoods show that immigration can have a quirkier effect than predicted by the usual textbook view. Evolutionary biologists have often talked about two forces working...

Frankenstein's chips: scientists turn to build-'em-yourself guinea pigs.
January 8, 2005... By the time pharmaceutical giant Merck yanked its painkiller Vioxx from the market last fall, the evidence had become overwhelming that the pills were nearly doubling patients' chances of heart attacks or strokes. What's particularly disturbing...

Food colorings: pigments make fruits and veggies extra healthful.(Cover Story)
January 8, 2005... Crop geneticist Charles R. Brown has spent a decade working to make abetter potato. In the beginning, he focused on beefing up the familiar white-fleshed tuber. His strategy was to recapture healthful traits from old-style spuds from the...

Probe bares heart of X-ray inferno.(Physics)(Brief Article)
January 8, 2005... Despite torrents of high-energy radiation, physicists have captured images of explosions that lead to some of the world's most powerful bursts of X rays. The snapshots reveal previously unseen details of fiery disintegrations at the core of a...

Helping patients decipher options.(Science & Society)(Brief Article)
January 8, 2005... Beginning next spring, a consortium of 20 scientific publishers, three health societies, and four other groups representing publishers and libraries will debut a free online service offering new medical findings to consumers. The goal of...

Ocean-sensor project reaches milestone.(Earth Science)(Brief Article)
January 8, 2005... Scientists seeking to deploy an armada of 3,000 robotic probes to take the pulse of Earth's oceans are halfway to their goal. As of Nov. 30, 2004 oceanographers had launched 1,516 of the sensor-laden Argo floats, says project director John...

A dwarf with a disk.(Astronomy)(Hubble Space Telescope has examined a ring of debris around a star)
January 8, 2005... The Hubble Space Telescope has examined in unprecedented detail a ring of debris around a star that could be the nearest and youngest known home for planets outside the solar system. Researchers described the findings during a NASA briefing...

Plants: importance of being economic.(Biology)(exotic plant species dominating real estate revealed by computer models)(Brief Article)
January 8, 2005... The pulse of the real estate market in a given area turns out to be a powerful indicator of how many exotic plant species have invaded the neighborhood, say two researchers. The hotter the market, the greater the risk to native species from...

Ring robber.(Astronomy)(Brief Article)
January 8, 2005... The Cassini spacecraft has caught a thief on camera. Images show Saturn's moon Prometheus stealing particles from the planet's F ring. This multistranded, kinked ring is flanked by 102-kilometer-wide Prometheus and another moon, Pandora. ...

The Dinosauria Second Edition.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... THE DINOSAURIA Second Edition DAVID B. WEISHAMPEL, PETER DODSON, AND HALSZKA OSMOSLSKA, EDS. Revised and updated, this opus provides a comprehensive overview of dinosaur paleontology. Since this book's original publication in 1990, a...

Human Bones: a Scientific and Pictorial Investigation.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... HUMAN BONES: A Scientific and Pictorial Investigation R. MCNEILL ALEXANDER All 213 bones of the human body are on display here, as Alexander--a zoologist who specializes in biomechanics--celebrates each one. He describes in brilliant...

Leadville: the Struggle to Revive an American Town.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... LEADVILLE: The Struggle to Revive an American Town GILLIAN KLUCAS At the turn of the 20th century, Leadville, Colo., was a bustling mining town. Some of the United States' most prominent families made fortunes there mining and smelting...

Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... SCIENCE FRICTION: Where the Known Meets the Unknown MICHAEL SHERMER Shermer is a devoted skeptic. In columns for The Skeptic, which he publishes, and Scientific American, he regularly picks apart ideas that are dubious but nevertheless...

Below the surface.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... I would suggest that the Italian hydrologists cited in "Fighting Water with Water: To lift the city, pump the sea beneath Venice" (SN: 10/30/04, p.277) consider the law of unintended consequences. Similar actions begun in 1978 at an oil field...

Dopey competition.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... In "Gene Doping" (SN: 10/30/04, p. 280), you wondered, "Should gene enhancement, or doping, be permissible for athletes attempting to improve their performance?" Sure, but in separate competitions. Athletes would register as either "doped" or...

A little brain power.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... Along with everyone else, I've been fired up by the amazing discovery of Homo floresiensis ("Evolutionary Shrinkage: Stone Age Homo find offers small surprise," SN: 10/30/04, p. 275). Clearly, our preconceptions about brain size and...

Boom times ahead?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... After reading "Solar Hydrogen" (SN: 10/30/04, p. 282), I noted that nowhere in the article's text was it stated how the hydrogen is going to be stored. Storing hydrogen safely and economically is difficult, to say the least. DAVID E....

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 8, 2005... "Umbilical Bounty: Cord blood shows value against leukemia" (SN: 11/27/04, p. 339) stated that the first umbilical cord-blood transplant was performed in France in 1988. In fact, a cord-blood transplant was done in 1970 in a 16-year-old boy...

Ultimate retro: modern echoes of the early universe.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... Two teams of astronomers have for the first time detected the surviving notes of a cosmic symphony created just after the Big Bang, when the universe was a foggy soup of matter and radiation. The discoverers say that the survival of the...

When laziness pays: math explains how cooperation and cheating evolve.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... Researchers have proposed a solution to a long-standing evolutionary conundrum: Why do populations of identical organisms sometimes split into two strains, cooperators and cheaters? Cooperation and cheating, inescapable parts of human...

Reptilian repast: ancient mammals preyed on young dinosaurs.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... Two nearly complete sets of fossilized animal remains from 130-million-year-old rocks in China are revealing fresh details about the size and dietary habits of ancient mammals. The newly described finds counter the common presumption that such...

Hands-on math insights: teachers' mismatched gestures boost learning.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... As teachers instruct a child, they typically use their hands as well as their voices, but only certain gestures pack a powerful educational punch, a new study suggests. Grade-schoolers best learn how to solve a particular mathematics problem...

Not to your health: new mechanism proposed for alcohol-related tumors.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... A glass of wine may be good for the heart--but may promote some cancers. Scientists have now figured out what's behind that sobering observation. New findings suggest that alcohol encourages blood vessels to infiltrate and nourish nascent...

Living in a fog: secondhand smoke may dull kids' wits.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... Millions of U.S. children and adolescents could have deficits in reading and other skills caused by breathing secondhand smoke, researchers estimate. A new study links poor performance on several cognitive tests to tobacco-smoke exposure, even...

Crow tools: hatched to putter.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... New Caledonian crows are the first vertebrates to be shown definitively to have an instinctive tendency to make and use tools, contend researchers who doubled as bird nannies. Two crows hand raised without seeing twig use spontaneously...

Phage attack: antibacterial virus might suppress cholera.(This Week)
January 15, 2005... In regions where cholera is endemic, outbreaks often coincide with the rainy seasons. But why this waterborne bacterial disease routinely strikes at such times has been unclear. Researchers working in Bangladesh now offer evidence that...

Proteins in the stretch: tugging at single molecules reveals their secrets.
January 15, 2005... Imagine that one day, instead of folding your clean laundry, you just dump it on your bed and, to your amazement, your shirts, sheets, and towels start folding themselves on their own. A minute later, the disorderly mound has turned into a neat...

Palm-nut problem: Asian chewing habit linked to oral cancer.(Cover Story)
January 15, 2005... Several hundred million people today practice the ancient custom of chewing betel. In south Asia, where the habit is most prevalent, the signs are hard to miss. Placed inside the cheek and sucked for hours, a betel wad turns saliva bright red,...

Seismic vibes gauge Earth's crust.(Siesmology)(Brief Article)
January 15, 2005... New seismic observations are filling in scientists' knowledge about the thickness of Earth's crust, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Because vibrations traveling through any material are deflected by its irregularities, scientists...

Big quakes can free grounded icebergs.(Earth Science)
January 15, 2005... Sensors installed on an immense iceberg stuck in shallow water off Antarctica have relayed data suggesting that the ground motions spawned by large, distant earthquakes can set such grounded icebergs afloat again. In mid-March 2000, an...

Landscaping stones may pose risks to the environment.(Environment)
January 15, 2005... In many arid regions, environmentally conscious gardeners who want to conserve water eschew lush lawns and instead grow indigenous drought-tolerant plants amid arrangements of ornamental rocks. Now, chemical analyses suggest that some such...

Really hot water.(Health Physics)(Uranium concentrations found in the water heater tanks)(Brief Article)
January 15, 2005... Sometimes, water heaters do more than the obvious. While they heat water, they also collect a little uranium, creating deposits of radioactive scale inside their tanks. That's what South Carolina researchers have discovered in a community with...

Sparrows learn song from pieces.(Zoology)(Brief Article)
January 15, 2005... To learn a song, young white-crowned song sparrows don't need to hear the entire tune straight through. Hearing it in two-phrase bits will do. If the order of phrases in a pair is reversed--BA and DC instead of AB and CD for instance--the...

Antibiotics could save nerves.(Biomedicine)(Brief Article)
January 15, 2005... Penicillin and its family of related antibiotics may soon have a new use: protecting nerve cells from chemical damage. Neurotransmitters, such as glutamate, excite neurons in the brain so that electric signals can pass from one neuron to...

A Life of Discovery: Michael Faraday, Giant of the Scientific Revolution.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 15, 2005... A LIFE OF DISCOVERY: Michael Faraday, Giant of the Scientific Revolution JAMES HAMILTON Art historian, Hamilton offers an unusual biography of one of the 19th century's greatest scientists. He explores how Micheal Faraday's...

No Germs Allowed! How to Avoid Infectious Disease at Home and on the Road.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 15, 2005... WINKLER G. WEINBERG What are the real risks of acquiring Lyme disease, hantavirus, salmonella, strep throat, or malaria? A physician who specialize in infectious diseases considers these questions and answers others, such as which vaccines...

Parallel Worlds: a Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 15, 2005... PARALLEL WORLDS: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos MICHIO KAKU Data and images collected by satellites such as the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and the Cosmic Background Explorer have...

The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World.(Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 15, 2005... THE SEVENTY GREAT INVENTIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD BRIAN M. FAGAN, ED. This guide blends details of modern science with tales of ancient innovation. Contributors with backgrounds in archaeology and history explore current scientific...

Maybe a smoky card game.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 15, 2005... I'm a veterinarian, and, here in west Texas, we see a high occurrence of parvovirus infection in young dogs. It destroys the intestinal villi, allowing gastrointestinal bacteria and their toxins to enter the bloodstream ("Nicotine's Good Side:...

Cellular sensationalism?(Letter)(Letter to the Editor)
January 15, 2005... I'm no fan of cell phones, but "Electronics Detox: Leadfree material for ecofriendly gadgetry," (SN: 11/6/04, p. 293) seems to be an article about a solution looking for a problem. Presumably, cell phones would be disposed of in landfills and,...

Moon boom doom?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 15, 2005... What will happen to the Huygens probe when it plunges through Titan's atmosphere ("A Titan of a Mission," SN: 11/20/04, p. 328)? Will we have a PHHT or a BOOM? My late father, a chemist, always admonished me to beware of acetylene, propane, and...

A world unveiled: creme brulee on Titan.(This Week)
January 22, 2005... Penetrating the orange haze of a frigid, alien world, a space probe parachuted onto Saturn's moon Titan late last week and came face-to-face with an unexpected landscape--a terrain that looks a lot like Earth. Sinuous drainage channels...

Pieces of an Ancestor: African site yields new look at ancient species.(This Week)
January 22, 2005... New fossil discoveries in eastern Africa offer a rare glimpse of one of the oldest members of humanity's evolutionary family. More than 4 million years ago, this upright-walking hominid--dubbed Ardipithecus ramidus--lived in an area that...

Black hole bonanza: 10,000 objects near our galaxy's center.(This Week)
January 22, 2005... Thousands of superdense neutron stars and midget black holes lurk near the center of our galaxy, according to new X-ray studies of the sky. The stellar-mass black holes are each just 10 times the mass of the sun, much smaller than the...

Bivalve takeover: once-benign clams boom after crab influx.(This Week)
January 22, 2005... In a rare analysis of one marine invader benefiting an earlier arrival, an ecologist says that European green crabs invading a California bay have triggered a population explosion of a previously marginal clam. The European green crab...

Infrared vision: new material may enhance plastic solar cells.(This Week)
January 22, 2005... Researchers have moved one step closer to the goal of flexible, low-cost, lightweight solar cells made of plastic. They've created the first polymer-based photovoltaic material that can harness a part of the sun's spectrum that had previously...

Micro musclebot: Wee walker moves by heart cells' beats.(This Week)
January 22, 2005... In a Los Angeles laboratory, researchers have let loose scores of what amount to living micromachines. Dwarfed by a comma, each tiny device consists of an arch of gold coated along its inner surface with a sheath of cardiac muscle grown from...

Early warning: United States to deploy 32 more buoys for sensing tsunamis.(This Week)
January 22, 2005... On Jan. 14, the Bush administration announced a $37.5 million program to expand the nation's tsunami-warning capabilities. The 2-year plan includes placing tsunami-detecting buoys in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea as well staffing around...

The hole story: black holes may wield an influence far beyond their gravitational reach.(Cover Story)
January 22, 2005... Four years ago, astronomer Karl Gebhardt, then a postdoc at the University of California, Santa Cruz, went for a job interview at Harvard University. Although he didn't get the faculty position he sought, he may have gotten something better: a...

Nobel celebrations: an elegant turn with science's elite.
January 22, 2005... I was halfway through my appetizer when the lights went dim in the Blue Hall--an ornate and cavernous room in the Stockholm City Hall. A spotlight scanned the elegant brick space and its 1,300 well-dressed guests, then came to rest on two opera...

Same brain region handles whistles and words.(Neuroscience)(Brief Article)
January 22, 2005... Areas of the brain linked to speech also spring into action when people communicate with each other by whistling, according to a new report. Neural tissue involved in language apparently adapts to a wide range of signaling systems, according to...