Science News articles from January 2007

Science News archives from January 2007

Bad to the bone: acid stoppers appear to have a downside.(This Week)
January 6, 2007... Popular heartburn pills taken to block the production of stomach acid seem to increase the risk of hip fractures in older people, according to an analysis of medical records. Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), available by prescription or over...

Loopy light: rings that delay photons may advance microchips.(This Week)
January 6, 2007... By linking loops of silicon on a microcircuit, researchers have taken a major stride toward using light to shuttle information within computer chips. The new approach may lead to circuitry that can manipulate exceptionally large amounts of data...

Paleotrickery: a lengthy lineage for leaf-mimicking insects.(This Week)
January 6, 2007... For at least 47 million years, some insects have escaped predators by looking like foliage and moving like swaying leaves, a new fossil find suggests. Many creatures elude predators by blending into their surroundings. But the 3,000 or so...

Better blood: new tool removes agent of brain disease.(This Week)
January 6, 2007... Scientists have developed a device that filters from blood the mutant proteins that cause the human form of mad cow disease. This new tool could boost the safety of donated blood. Infectious proteins called prions cause mad cow disease,...

Rocky finding: evidence of extrasolar asteroid belt.(This Week)
January 6, 2007... Astronomers report that they've obtained the best evidence yet for an asteroid belt beyond the solar system. Such a belt would suggest that the star Zeta Leporis, which lies just 70 light-years away, possesses not only asteroids but rocky...

Message songs: wild gibbons warble with a simple syntax.(This Week)
January 6, 2007... Southeastern Asian forests harbor a small-bodied line of apes, known as gibbons, that sing like rainforest Pavarottis. These animals' full-throated refrains reverberate through dense vegetation. A research team has now gone behind the...

Guys roll eyes: fish show some eyeball to their rivals.(This Week)
January 6, 2007... Male fish in the Colorado River roll their eyes to flash a novel "Back off, punk" signal at other males, researchers say. The razorback suckers' gesture--dipping the eyeball to expose its upper third--ranks as the first documented eye roll...

A new spin: X-rays shed light on black holes.
January 6, 2007... For an object that wields such a powerful and complex influence, a black hole is amazingly simple. Although its gravity is strong enough to trap light and slow time until each second lasts an eternity, the basic astrophysical properties of a...

Most bees live alone: no hives, no honey, but maybe help for crops.(Cover story)
January 6, 2007... Theresa Pitts-Singer and Cory Vorel give us such friendly smiles that it's almost impossible not to believe them. But their advice on getting a close look at their bees seems nuts. They've led a small group of visitors around a back corner of...

For sweat's sake.(CHEMISTRY)(Brief article)
January 6, 2007... Soldiers may someday find comfort as well as safety in chemical-protection gear, now that researchers have created a breathable, chemical-blocking composite material. Manufacturers commonly make protective garments out of butyl rubber,...

Longer work hours may warm climate.(SCIENCE & SOCIETY)(Brief article)
January 6, 2007... U.S. employees work an average of 16 percent more hours per year than most of their European counterparts do--often with no increased productivity--a new study notes. A longer workday requires more energy for heat, light, and power, and the...

Dating a massive undersea slide.(ANCIENT TSUNAMI)(Brief article)
January 6, 2007... Pieces of moss buried in debris deposits along the Norwegian coast have enabled geologists to better peg the date of an ancient tsunami and the immense underwater landslide that triggered it. Carbon dating of the newly unearthed moss suggests...

Glaciers give major boost to sea level.(CLIMATE CHANGE)(Brief article)
January 6, 2007... In today's warming climate, the significant melting of the ice sheets capping Greenland and Antarctica garners a lot of attention. However, the ongoing melting of glaciers and other small ice masses worldwide actually makes a larger...

Scraping the bottom.(ICE AGE REMNANTS)(Brief article)
January 6, 2007... A survey of deep waters in western Lake Superior reveals the tracks left when massive icebergs scraped the lakebed during the last ice age. Scientists have previously seen iceberg scours on the bottom of Lake Superior, but those were found...

When budgeting for quakes, dig deep.(SCIENCE AND SOCIETY)(Brief article)
January 6, 2007... If the earthquakes that have struck the United States since 1900 are any guide, the nation can now expect to suffer, on average, billions of dollars of seismic damage each year. Analysts have often adjusted damage estimates from long-past...

The Royal Tombs of Egypt: The Art of Thebes Revealed.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 6, 2007... THE ROYAL TOMBS OF EGYPT: The Art of Thebes Revealed ZAHI HAWASS Egypt's Valley of the Kings is the burial site of most of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, writes that the tombs...

Subtropical and Dry Climate Plants.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 6, 2007... SUBTROPICAL AND DRY CLIMATE PLANTS MARTYN RIX Gardeners who find themselves in the warm-and-wet climate of the southeastern United States or the dry heat of the Southwest have at their disposal a wide array of beautiful plant species,...

Ocean.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 6, 2007... OCEAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Staff of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and other contributors present an elaborate reference to the underwater realm. Without the oceans, explains Fabien Cousteau in the...

Endangered: Wildlife on the Brink of Extinction.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 6, 2007... ENDANGERED: Wildlife on the Brink of Extinction GEORGE C. MCGAVIN Extinction, like evolution, is a natural process. However, since the Industrial Revolution, increasing numbers of animals have become endangered not so much as a...

Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 6, 2007... DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest GERARD J. DEGROOT Many people have fond memories of the moon landings of the 1960s and consider them heroic scientific achievements for the United States....

Gone with the heat?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 6, 2007... "Feeling the heat of an extrasolar planet" (SN: 10/28/06, p. 285) made me wonder how long a gas planet is expected to survive when one of its faces is more than 1,000[degrees]C. The conventional model of our solar system assumes that gas...

Reflecting on a problem.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 6, 2007... One solution to global warming suggested in "a Swarm of Umbrellas vs. Global Warming: Astronomer thinks small to save Earth" (SN: 11/4/06, p. 291) is stretching Mylar across the ground. How about designing reflective concrete to aid in this...

Some 'no' votes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 6, 2007... As a computer scientist, I appreciate that increased layers of hidden complexity only increase vulnerability to both innocent error and fraudulent manipulation ("Ballot Roulette," SN: 11/4/06, p. 298). As a voter, I thoroughly understand how to...

Folic acid dilemma: one vitamin may impair cognition if another is lacking.(This Week)
January 13, 2007... The nutrient folic acid is generally good for brain health, but research now suggests that too much of it might harm people who get too little vitamin [B.sub.12]. Those potentially at risk include vegetarians, whose diets may contain...

Fleet finding: speed of Milky Way's companions poses puzzle.(This Week)
January 13, 2007... Visible to the naked eye, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are two of the Milky Way's closest companion galaxies. Scientists have assumed that these groups of stars have been orbiting the Milky Way for billions of years. But new...

Alien alert: shrimpy invader raises big concerns.(This Week)
January 13, 2007... In November, an unusual swarm of tiny critters caught the attention of a crew-member on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration boat docked in a Lake Michigan channel. He asked Steven Pothoven of NOAA2's Great Lakes environmental...

No fluke: new weapon against tropical parasite.(This Week)
January 13, 2007... An experimental drug shows potential against schistosomiasis, a scourge that infects millions of people throughout the tropics. Tests in mice suggest that the drug might complement the sole effective treatment currently used to fight this...

Biggest bloom: superflower changes branch on family tree.(This Week)
January 13, 2007... Plants with buds the size of basketballs, which open flowers up to a meter across, must be reclassified as relatives of poinsettias, say researchers who've examined the DNA of the world's largest known flowers. For almost 2 centuries,...

Electrode enhancements: new materials may boost fuel cell performance.(This Week)
January 13, 2007... Two teams have independently discovered ways to dramatically improve the materials used in the electrodes of fuel cells. Those developments could make the electricity-generating equipment more efficient, cheaper, and longer lasting, the...

Switch hitters: antibacterial compounds target new mechanism to kill microbes.(This Week)
January 13, 2007... With drug-resistant bacteria on the offensive, researchers are on the lookout for novel microbial processes to disrupt. A new study provides evidence that recently discovered ribonucleic acid segments may become plum targets. Those...

Cellular contortionist: can DNA easily get bent out of shape?
January 13, 2007... Even when biophysicist Paul Wiggins pursues his favorite sport, rock climbing, he doesn't leave his work behind. While struggling to untangle ropes--"one of the most frustrating aspects of climbing," he says--Wiggins envisions great lengths of...

Digital fingerprints: tiny behavioral differences can reveal your identity online.(Cover story)
January 13, 2007... Early during World War II, British intelligence officers eavesdropped on German radio transmissions, but because the messages were in an encrypted version of Morse code, the British couldn't understand the content. The dots and dashes came in...

Yes, it's asbestos.(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... Federal mineralogists have now corroborated what toxicologists from another agency reported last year: Sierra-foothills communities around Sacramento, Calif., are built atop soils naturally laced with asbestos. The confirmatory findings...

A backpack with a suspension system.(TECHNOLOGY)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... A new backpack design that uses elastic cords to minimize the pack's vertical motion could lessen bodily strain on wearers and reduce the effort required to carry a load. It could be useful to schoolchildren encumbered with books or to...

Good news for people with clotting disorder.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... Patients with the bleeding disorder called immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) harbor antibodies that sabotage production of the platelets responsible for proper blood clotting. ITP patients often feel fatigued and bruise so easily that they...

Putting the kibosh on black cohosh.(BIOMEDICINE)
January 13, 2007... The herbal supplement black cohosh, taken for relief of menopausal hot flashes, doesn't work any better than a placebo, a study finds. Previous research had brought mixed results. Nevertheless, sales of black cohosh have soared as women...

Stem cells float in amniotic fluid.(BIOLOGY)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... Scientists have discovered a new type of stem cell in the fluid that bathes fetuses in the womb. These cells can grow into a variety of body tissues, the researchers report. Scientists have long known that cells from fetuses float in...

Big footprints.(AGRICULTURE)(livestock industry and environmental concerns)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... There are surprisingly large hidden costs to hot dogs, burgers, milk, and other animal products, finds a new report entitled Live stock's Long Shadow. Prepared by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, the report notes...

Congress upgrades fisheries protection.(SCIENCE & SOCIETY)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... On Dec. 9, 2006, Congress reauthorized the 30-year-old Magnuson-Stevens Act, a law that sets rules for fishing and ocean management. This is the law's first wholesale revision since 1996. Much has happened since then. Fisheries throughout...

Genes discovered for sensing carbon dioxide.(BIOLOGY)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... Researchers have tracked down a pair of genes that, together, seem responsible for some insects' ability to sense carbon dioxide. Because mosquitoes detect the gas to home in on their next blood meal, a means to block this sense could lead to...

Middle World: The Restless Heart of Matter and Life.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 13, 2007... MIDDLE WORLD: The Restless Heart of Matter and Life MARK HAW Ultralarge things, those on the scale of planets and galaxies, and ultrasmall things, on the scale of electrons and quarks, have long captured the imagination of scientists,...

Weather Projects for Young Scientists.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)
January 13, 2007... WEATHER PROJECTS FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS MARY KAY CARSON Weather predictions affect us all the time, from our decision about whether to carry an umbrella to our knowledge that a snowstorm will close schools tomorrow. This engaging book...

Astronomy: 365 Days.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 13, 2007... ASTRONOMY: 365 Days JERRY T. BONNELL AND ROBERT J. NEMIROFF On any given day, astronomy aficionados can get a glimpse of the cosmos by visiting physicists Bonnell and Nemiroff's NASA-sponsored "Astronomy Picture of the Day" Web site....

Infection: The Uninvited Universe.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 13, 2007... INFECTION: The Uninvited Universe GERALD N. CALLAHAN The proliferation of antibacterial soaps and drugs suggests that people have come to regard bacteria as the enemy. It's not without good reason: From syphilis to anthrax and the...

Sunny exposition.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 13, 2007... "The Antibiotic Vitamin" (SN: 11/11/06, p. 312) reminds me that in preantibiotic days, tuberculosis patients were put on a fresh-air-and-sunshine regimen. Could the vitamin D so acquired account for the cures this system sometimes produced? ...

Animal instincts.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 13, 2007... The idea of Pleistocene rewilding in North America is provocative ("Brave Old World; SN: 11/11/06, p. 314), but it need not be treated only in the abstract. The return of beavers (Castor canadensis) to almost every region of the continent has...

Golden eggs: engineered hens lay drugs.(This Week)
January 20, 2007... Scottish scientists have genetically engineered hens that can not only produce useful drugs in their eggs but also reliably pass on this characteristic to new generations of chickens. Successfully combining these two traits represents a first...

A cosmic pas de trois: triple-quasar system may signal galaxy mergers.(This Week)
January 20, 2007... Astronomers have discovered the first example of a trio of quasars, the brilliant beacons of light that seem to be fueled by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. The triplet adds to earlier evidence that supermassive black holes...

Fish killer caught? Ephemeral Pfiesteria compound surfaces.(This Week)
January 20, 2007... A team of researchers claims to have found an elusive algal toxin implicated in massive fish kills along the Mid-Atlantic coast in the 1990s. They say that the compound's characteristics explain why it has been so difficult to track down. Other...

Coming to a bad end: lost chromosome tips linked to heart problems.(This Week)
January 20, 2007... The prime risk factors for hear disease are well known--obesity, smoking, elevated cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Yet many people with these warning signs develop heart problems, while others don't. This observation indicates that...

Saving whales the easy way? Less lobstering could mean fewer deaths.(This Week)
January 20, 2007... A controversial new study argues that the U.S. lobster fishery in the Gulf of Maine could have the better of two worlds: less work to make the same profit and fewer whales dying as a result of getting tangled in lobster gear. To create...

Going under down under: early people at fault in Australian extinctions.(This Week)
January 20, 2007... A lengthy, newly compiled fossil record of Australian mammals bolsters the notion that humanity's arrival on the island continent led to the extinction of' many large creatures there. Archaeological evidence suggests that people arrived in...

Starved for assistance: coercion finds a place in the treatment of two eating disorders.(This Week)
January 20, 2007... Many people with serious eating disorders seek mental-health care only after they are pressured into it by concerned clinicians, family, friends, and employers. Although these cases make psychiatrists uncomfortable, a new study suggests that...

Counterintuitive toxicity: increasingly, scientists are finding that they can't predict a poison's low-dose effects.
January 20, 2007... For decades, researchers largely assumed that a poison's effects increase as the dose rises and diminish as it falls. However, scientists are increasingly documenting unexpected effects--sometimes disproportionately adverse, sometimes...

Weighing in on city planning: could smart urban design keep people fit and trim?(Cover story)
January 20, 2007... Lawrence Frank is couch potato. Taking full advantage of his city s compact design, the Vancouver, British Columbia, resident often bikes to work and walks to stores, restaurants, and museums. That activity helps him stay fit and trim. But...

Mercury pollution settles in hot spots.(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
January 20, 2007... Mercury in the environment tends to accumulate in certain geographical areas, new research suggests. In a pair of related studies, David C. Evers of the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Maine, and his colleagues analyzed mercury...

Nanoparticles find tumors, form clumps.(BIOMEDICINE)
January 20, 2007... Newly designed nanoparticles could have dual benefits for fighting cancer. Not only do these tiny particles home in on tumors, but they also stick together once they enter tumors' blood vessels. The particles could eventually be a means to...

Of penguins' range and climate change.(PALEONTOLOGY)(Brief article)
January 20, 2007... Variations in the range of Adelie penguins along one section of Antarctica's coast during the past 45,000 years are a keen indicator of climate change there, a new study suggests. Adelie penguins thrive only at sites with ice-free terrain,...

2006: hottest year in U.S. history.(CLIMATE)(Brief article)
January 20, 2007... Preliminary analysis of weather data gathered from more than 1,200 sites across the continental United States indicates that last year was the warmest on record. The average temperature for 2006 was 12.8[degrees]C (55[degrees]F), National...

Salmonella illnesses traced to pet rodents.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)(Brief article)
January 20, 2007... Hamsters and other pet rodents are probably underappreciated spreaders of salmonella bacteria, researchers say. A recent outbreak investigation linked 15 of 22 infections caused by Salmonella enterica of a type called Typhimurium to the act of...

Gene variant shapes beta-blocker's effectiveness.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
January 20, 2007... A medication widely used for heart failure may be most effective in people who have a common variant of a particular gene, a laboratory study suggests. Genetic testing for the variant could potentially identify patients who are most likely to...

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 20, 2007... MEDICAL APARTHEID: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present HARRIET A. WASHINGTON Beginning in colonial times, blacks were seen as property that could be experimented upon and...

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Book review)
January 20, 2007... SAXONS, VIKINGS, AND CELTS: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland BRYAN SYKES Sykes, the founder of an organization that sequences individuals' DNA so they can explore their roots, here recounts the genetic history of the people of...

Exploratopia.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 20, 2007... EXPLORATOPIA PAT MURPHY, ELLEN MACAULAY, AND THE STAFF OF THE EXPLORATORIUM Located in San Francisco, the Exploratorium is a world-renowned science center full of interactive exhibits. Murphy, a 20-year employee of the center, and her...

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 20, 2007... DEATH BY BLACK HOLE: And Other Cosmic quandaries NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON In this collection of more than 40 essays taken from Natural History magazine, Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in...

Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 20, 2007... DREAMING IN CODE: TWO Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One quest for Transcendent Software SCOTT ROSENBERG Our modern lives rely on the proper functioning of billions of lines of software code to run everything from...

Sea tales.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 20, 2007... In "Dashing Rogues" (SN: 11/18/06, p. 328) on rogue waves, you make no mention of the use of satellite data, which is ideal for this sort of study. Two projects, in particular, are of great relevance: the European Union's MaxWave study and the...

Sorry, wrong number.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 20, 2007... "Ancient Gene Yield: New methods retrieve Neandertal's DNA" (SN: 11/18/06, p. 323) reads: "... a huge chunk of Neandertal DNA, covering more than 1 million of the roughly 3 million paired chemical constituents of an individual's genetic...

Way outside the box.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 20, 2007... It would seem difficult to distinguish between the repulsive force that dark energy proposes and the regular gravitational pull of ordinary matter ("Dark Fingerprints: Hubble sheds light on cosmic expansion," SN: 11/18/06, p. 323). Somehow, the...

Addiction subtraction: brain damage curbs cigarette urge.(This Week)
January 27, 2007... Scientists have identified an area of the brain where damage seems to quickly halt a person's desire to smoke. The region could form a target for novel therapies to help people quit smoking, the researchers say. Led by neuroscientist...

Making a 3-D microscope: technique brings entire sample into focus.(interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy)
January 27, 2007... A new imaging technique creates microscopic three-dimensional views of tissues within a patient's body and can update those images several times a second. The technology could be a boon for guided surgery, in which doctors use...

Mind over muscle: placebo boosts health benefits of exercise.
January 27, 2007... The physical rewards of exercise derive not just from muscular exertion but, to a surprising extent, from a person's mind-set about exercise, a new report suggests. Alia J. Crum and Ellen J. Langer, psychologists at Harvard University,...

Salve for the lungs: aspirin might prevent asthma.(This Week)
January 27, 2007... Regular use of aspirin may prevent healthy adults from developing asthma, according to a 5-year study of male doctors. Inflammation in the lungs characterizes asthma. During an attack, inflamed airways constrict, obstructing air flow. The...

Magnificent McNaught.(Comet McNaught )(Brief article)
January 27, 2007... The brightest comet in 4 decades is flaunting its dusty tail over southern skies, as this Jan. 18 photograph taken from Dunedin, New Zealand, attests. When Comet McNaught was discovered in August 2006, orbital computations suggested that it was...

Ancient glider: dinosaur took to the air in biplane style.(microraptor gui, flying dinosaur)
January 27, 2007... Looks like Mother Nature beat the Wright Brothers to the punch. About 125 million years before the two airmen lifted off at Kitty Hawk in their biplane, a 1-meter-long dinosaur was swooping from tree to tree with the same arrangement of wings,...

Good poison? Carbon monoxide may stifle multiple sclerosis.(This Week)
January 27, 2007... Small amounts of carbon monoxide might alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis, a study in mice suggests. The finding may offer a treatment for MS, which strikes when a person's immune system damages the fatty sheaths that protect nerve fibers...

Secret agent: hidden helper lets fungus save plants from heat.(curvularia protuberata, Curvularia thermal-tolerance virus)
January 27, 2007... The story of a fungus that keeps plants from withering in hot soil turns out to have been missing a character--the virus that makes it all work. The fungus Curvularia protuberata grows inside plant tissues without damaging them. In 2002,...

Perchance to hibernate: can we tap a dormant capacity to downshift our metabolism?
January 27, 2007... This time of year, the wilds of North America are relatively quiet. The black bears that usually patrol the woods seem to have vanished. Many bat species are nowhere to be found, at least not by the causal observer. The same is true of ground...

Aquatic non-scents: repercussions of water pollutants that mute smell.
January 27, 2007... People complain about the way that fish smell. But it's the fish that should be doing the grumbling. In pristine waters, the animals smell quite well, thank you. Those tiny holes near fishes' mouths are, in fact, nostrils through which the...

Trichomoniasis-causing organism is sequenced.(BIOLOGY)(trichomonas vaginalis)(Brief article)
January 27, 2007... Scientists have taken a first read of the genetic sequence of the organism responsible for a sexually transmitted infection called trichomoniasis. This disease is caused by the single-celled parasite Trichomonas vaginalis. Symptoms of...

Aging vets take stress disorder to heart.(BEHAVIOR)(Brief article)
January 27, 2007... Veterans grappling for decades with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a greater risk of developing and dying from heart disease than do their peers who don't suffer from the stress ailment, according to a long-term study. Male...

Heating releases cookware chemicals.(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
January 27, 2007... Nonstick coatings on fry pans and microwave-popcorn bags can, when heated, release traces of potentially toxic perfluorinated chemicals into the air and the food being cooked, a new study suggests. Although the chemicals aren't subject to any...

Tracking nanotubes in mice.(NANOTECHNOLOGY)(Brief article)
January 27, 2007... While studies have demonstrated that carbon nanotubes with certain molecular attachments can target specific cells in culture, researchers haven't known whether the tubes would show the same capability in live animals. Now, a team from Stanford...

Solving a 400-year-old supernova riddle.(ASTROPHYSICS)(Kepler's supernova)
January 27, 2007... In 1604, an assistant to the astronomer Johannes Kepler discovered an object that shone brighter than any star in the heavens. It was the exploding star now known as Kepler's supernova, the last one that astronomers have witnessed in the Milky...