Science News articles from January 2009

Science News archives from January 2009

Counting down 2008's science news favorites.(FROM THE EDITOR)
January 3, 2009... Another year, gone, as Dumbledore said at the end of the first Harry Potter movie. All that was left was to add up the points for the House Cup competition, with some clever manipulation to make sure that Gryffindor won. In science,...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Quotation)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... "All of us have a tendency to overgeneralize about the significance of results obtained from just a few species, such as Drosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans or rats. Model systems are essential, of course, but we have to remember that they don't...

Science past: January 3, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... "FLYING BICYCLE" IN WORKS -- Despite jibes and ridicule, some leading British aviation scientists are planning to take a holiday from supersonic bombers and jet airliners to produce the basic flying machine that man has been striving to make...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)(Calendar)
January 3, 2009... January 3 Quadrantid meteor shower at its peak. Visit www.imo.net/ calendar/2009 January 24 Learn about the science behind rock climbing at the Rochester Museum & Science Center in New York. Visit www.rmsc.org February 12-16...

Earth.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... The rise of land triggered by earthquakes lifts corals from water, killing them. Cycles of coral death reflect quake cycles, and southern Sumatra has just begun a new round of large quakes. See "Reef record suggests impending Sumatra quakes."...

Body & brain.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... The judging brain is active in a different way when someone decides a person is guilty versus when someone decides a person's punishment. See "In the brain, justice is served from many parts."

Matter & energy.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)
January 3, 2009... Its atoms move freely without friction: It's superglass, and it could exist. See "Superglass could be new state of matter."

Science stats: state of cancer.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Statistical table)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... 1975-2005 U.S. cancer mortality and incidence rates [GRAPHIC OMITTED] 2001-2005 U.S. incidence rates of the most common cancers per 100,000 people, by race All White Black Asian/Pacific Hispanic...

Gene connects lack of shut-eye with diabetes: studies reveal how sleep can influence blood sugar levels.(STORY ONE)
January 3, 2009... Sleep is a mystery. Although it's required for good health, no one knows exactly why. But now scientists have found a surprisingly clear connection between sleep and a healthy body: the regulation of sugar in the blood. Three new studies report...

An exoplanet with some fizz: C[O.sub.2] detection bolsters search for signs of life.(Atom & Cosmos)
January 3, 2009... Moving one step closer to finding distant fingerprints of life, astronomers have for the first time detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet that orbits a star other than the sun. The extrasolar planet and its star lie about 63...

Stairways to climate stability.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] They may not be the steps to paradise, but several outcrops of Martian rocks (shown at left) do resemble stairs, displaying a pattern that suggests the ancient climate on the Red Planet wasn't always an amalgam of...

Data from galaxy clusters suggest dark energy is constant over time: density value may resemble Einstein's cosmological constant.(Atom & Cosmos)
January 3, 2009... VANCOUVER, Canada -- Chalk up another victory for the dark side. Comparing X-ray observations of distant and nearby clusters of galaxies, astronomers say they have found new, independent evidence for the existence of dark energy, the...

Sizing up the galaxy's black hole.(MEETING NOTES: Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics Dec. 8-12, Vancouver, Canada)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... A German team of astronomers that has monitored the motions of 28 stars at the center of the Milky Way galaxy for 16 years reports a new, more precise mass value for the supermassive black hole believed to lurk there. The black hole weighs the...

Fermi finds gamma-ray pulsars.(MEETING NOTES: Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics Dec. 8-12, Vancouver, Canada)(Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... In its first four months of monitoring the heavens from orbit, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled the activity of celestial objects that emit powerful gamma rays. Among the first findings: The high-energy share of gamma-ray...

4.31 million.
January 3, 2009... 4.31 million Mass in suns of the Milky Way's central black hole

27,000 light-years.
January 3, 2009... 27,000 light-years Distance from Earth to the black hole

Plate tectonics may have had an early start: ancient zircon crystals imply activity during Hadean eon.(Earth)
January 3, 2009... The chemical composition of ancient crystals bolsters the notion that tectonic plates may have jostled across Earth's surface more than 4 billion years ago. New clues about the planet's early history have emerged from zircons in rocks from...

Arctic freeze triggers big squeeze: methane release linked to wetlands covering permafrost.(Earth)
January 3, 2009... The annual freeze of wetland soils lying atop permafrost in many high arctic regions may trigger the long-noted, yet mysterious rise of atmospheric methane concentrations over those areas each fall, a new study suggests. The bacteria-aided...

It's the thought that counts--not the money--when it comes to gifts: givers often don't shift their perspective to that of the receiver.(Humans)
January 3, 2009... It's enough to give pause to any financially strapped Santa Claus, and perhaps elicit his applause. Don't worry about cutting back on holiday gift spending during hard times for fear of disappointing others, at least if they're grown-ups....

Spanish exiles left genes behind: inquisition couldn't quash Moorish, Jewish presence.(Humans)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Hold the history book presses. The Moorish invasion of Spain was never completely repelled, a new genetic analysis reveals. As many as one in 10 men from Spain and Portugal still carry genetic evidence of North African ancestry, and nearly...

Dolphins wield tools of the sea: sponges utensils of choice for 'workaholics' of ocean realm.(Life)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You know it's mealtime for certain bottlenose dolphins off Australia's coast when they sport cone-shaped sea sponges on their beaks. These mammals are not following a strange, marine-based dress code. Their behavior...

Dogs strike over unfair treatment: canines are first nonprimates to show aversion to inequity.(Life)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... If Congress literally went to the dogs, there could still be growling over corporate bailout requests from highly compensated executives. Dogs are the first animals outside primates that have passed an experimental test for an aversion to...

Demand for circumcision exceeds availability in sub-Saharan Africa: procedure catches on among men as a way to prevent HIV.(Body & Brain)
January 3, 2009... Clinics offering discounted or free circumcision for men in sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing long lines and keen interest as word spreads that the operation provides partial protection against HIV and may offer other benefits, researchers...

Fine-scale shape confers fertility: study identifies structure of protein on mouse egg.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... If fertility had a shape, this would be it. Scientists have figured out the exact shape of part of a protein, called the ZP-N domain, that sits on the outside of an egg cell and aids in fertilization. The results, which may ultimately lead...

Malaria vaccine closer to reality: vaccine shows partial protection, paving the way for final trial.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Firing new shots in the malaria war, a vaccine still in testing is now a step closer to becoming a public health reality. Two new reports, from Kenya and Tanzania, show that the vaccine halves a child's risk of getting malaria, setting the...

Measures for cancer prevention.(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... SAN ANTONIO -- Breast density measurements from routine mammograms can reveal within a year or so whether taking the drug tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer is worthwhile for high-risk women. Participants who experienced a reduction in breast...

Soy's role in cancer resistance.(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... SAN ANTONIO -- Soy isoflavone genistein boosts levels of the tumor suppressor protein PTEN in healthy cells, Omar Rahal and Rosalia Simmen of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock reported December 13 at the San Antonio...

Sleep off an infection.(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... SAN FRANCISCO -- The immune system in fruit flies--and probably people--runs according to a schedule set by a molecular clock in the brain, Mimi Shirasu-Hiza of Stanford University reported December 14 at a meeting of the American Society for...

More than 350 million.
January 3, 2009... more than 350 million Number of cases of malaria ocurring worldwide each year

More than 1 million.
January 3, 2009... more than 1 million Number of people who die each year from malaria

2008 Science News of the year.(Cover story)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Dramatic disappointments in physics have dotted these pages. A faulty connection at the world's largest particle accelerator shut it down just after it turned on. The Hubble Space Telescope went silent just before a final servicing mission was...

Atom & cosmos.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Tasting Ice After struggling to deliver a soil sample to its ovens, the Phoenix Mars Lander confirms the presence of water ice on Mars (SN: 8/30/08, p. 11). Family for Pluto Pluto and its dwarf planet neighbors in the outer solar system...

Planets, planets everywhere: extrasolar planetary system makes its pictorial debut.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Atoms & Cosmos)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Two teams of extrasolar planet hunters reported that they have achieved a long-sought milestone: obtaining what appear to be the first bona fide images of planets orbiting stars beyond the solar system (SN: 12/6/08,...

Grasping numbers without words: studies challenge theories that link language and thought.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Humans)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Brazil's Piraha people can't count on using words for the number one or for any other number to describe exact quantities, a team led by MIT cognitive scientist Edward Gibson suggests (SN: 7/19/08, p. 5). The denizens of the Amazon rainforest...

Humans.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Domain of the dead An investigation of England's Stonehenge (shown above) reveals that the site served as a cemetery from its inception nearly 5,000 years ago until well after its large stones were put in place 500...

Science & society.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Big foot Rich nations are leaving supersized boot prints of ecological damage on poor countries. In the past four decades, the rich have passed up to $2.5 trillion in environmental damage onto the poor, eclipsing the poor nations' debt of $1.8...

Polar bears listed as threatened: climate disruption cited as main threat to Arctic creature.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Science & Society)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The polar bear made it onto the U.S. endangered species list in the "threatened" category in May after several years of legal and scientific drama (SN Online: 5/14/08). Listings for corals mention climate change as a...

Genes & cells.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Making the human The human version of a stretch of DNA responsible for turning genes on and off spurs development in mouse limbs, but the same stretch of DNA from chimps does not. The difference points to a genetic change that may be crucial in...

Stem cell efforts take steps: resetting no longer requires DNA-altering viruses.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Genes & Cells)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After the landmark achievement in late 2007 of reverting human adult skin cells to an embryonic stem cell-like state--a technique that does not involve creating or destroying human embryos--stem cell researchers have...

Life.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)
January 3, 2009... Bat noses Researchers identify and culture a fungus that has been whitening the noses of bats dying during hibernation in the Northeast. The fungus is now a suspect in bat declines (SN Online: 10/30/08). The big fang All fangs--no matter...

Species in trouble: many mammals, corals face extinction.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Life)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Between a fifth and a third of the world's mammal species are now dwindling toward extinction, says the international conservation organization IUCN in the first comprehensive review since 1996 (SN: 11/8/08, p. 15). That's at least 1,139...

On and off for the LHC: protons take trip around the accelerator.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Matter & Energy)(Large Hadron Collider)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One short trip for a proton, one not-so-giant step for mankind. On September 10, scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, near Geneva, successfully steered the first beam of protons around the accelerator's...

Matter & energy.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Invisibility within sight Researchers take steps toward developing materials that can bend light in a way that renders objects invisible (SN: 8/30/08, p. 15). Non-nanotubes Researchers discover a new type of carbon filament, colossal...

Technology.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] High-tech fingerprints A new chemical technique could detect traces of explosives, illicit drugs (cocaine shown) and other compounds from fingerprints. It could also reveal signs of disease (SN: 8/30/08, p. 9). ...

Monkey brain moves arm: technology could lead to better prostheses.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Technology)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Macaque monkeys with electrodes implanted in their brains learned to control a robotic arm with their thoughts. After practice, the monkeys appeared to treat the robotic arm as their own and could feed themselves with the arm using fluid...

The sleep, diabetes link: pancreatic cells have melatonin receptor.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Body & Brain)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Scientists find a surprisingly clear connection between sleep and a healthy body: the regulation of sugar levels in the blood. Three large genomic studies, all online December 7 in Nature Genetics, describe the first genetic link between...

Body & brain.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)
January 3, 2009... Blind may see Gene therapy restores limited vision in three people with an inherited form of blindness. Studies in mice indicate that other cells in the retina can take over for rod and cone cells (SN: 5/24/08, p. 8). Early signal Before...

Nutrition.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ginkgo, don't bother The supplement ginkgo biloba fails to ward off Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia any better than a placebo, a study shows (SN: 12/20/08, p. 8). In the gut Overweight children...

Food advice could be peanuts: early exposure seems to lessen the risk of nut allergy.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Nutrition)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Consuming peanut butter in infancy appears to lessen, not increase, a child's risk of developing a peanut allergy later (SN: 12/6/08, p. 8). The findings clash with some pediatric practices of the past decade and suggest that eating peanuts...

Evidence included: zircons hint at early tectonic activity, life.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Earth)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Two analyses of tiny mineral bits that crystallized during the Earth's formative years have provided new insights into the planet's earliest days. One study of mineral inclusions in zircons from the Jack Hills of Western Australia hints...

Earth.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fire under ice Thick layers of volcanic ash (above, ash samples shown in inset) blanketing a patch of Arctic seafloor point to explosive volcanism at a depth greater than 4,000 meters, a phenomenon scientists long...

Math success doesn't add up for U.S. girls: environment may play important role.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Numbers)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... The perception that girls don't measure up to boys when it comes to math was refuted by a study of more than 7 million students in 10 states. Reporting in Science on July 25, a group of researchers argue that boys' higher SAT math scores are a...

Numbers.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... Beautiful game A theorem identifies cases in which infinite-choice games will have at least one Nash equilibrium--a situation in which each player gets the best deal possible (SN: 11/8/08, p. 10). Leafy networks Using an artificial model of...

Evidence builds against chemical found in plastics.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Environment)(bisphenol A)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The widely used plastics ingredient bisphenol A, which can leach from food and beverage containers, takes some hits in two studies looking at humans and biologically relevant doses: In a broad survey using CDC data...

Environment.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Forest invades tundra Trees are growing in Arctic soils previously characterized by tiny low-growing shrubs, a development that threatens to indirectly accelerate global warming (SN: 7/5/08, p. 26). Ocean reflux...

Molecules.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Pretty darn small Electron microscopes image single atoms of hydrogen (SN: 8/16/08, p. 7). No babies, no hormones Researchers infuse mouse cells grown in the lab with small, customized RNA molecules that could...

Physicists slow, cool jittering molecules: laser's tickle unlocks ultracold realms.(2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR: Molecules)(Brief article)
January 3, 2009... By using precisely tuned lasers, physicists have nearly stopped molecules cold (SN: 12/20/08, p. 22). Usually molecules zip, spin and quiver with frenetic motion, giving structure and physical properties to nearly everything that exists. But by...

Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 3, 2009... Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War Jeffrey A. Lockwood Sometimes the deadliest weapons are the most unobtrusive: Cholera-covered flies in the ceramic containers that Japanese bombers dropped on southern China in May...

The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 3, 2009... The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces Frank Wilczek For a safari-like adventure into the world of physics, follow Wilczek's lead. Quirky but knowledgeable, he explores the essence of the matter that makes...

Nobel: A Century of Prize Winners.(BOOKSHELF)
January 3, 2009... Nobel: A Century of Prize Winners Michael Worek, ed. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Profiles of laureates and of great achievements since 1901. Firefly, 2008, 320 p., $24.95.

The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine.(BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 3, 2009... The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine Charles Petzold [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A programmer and best-selling author expands Turing's 36-page paper by adding...

Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America.(BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 3, 2009... Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America Stephen Trimble [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A writer, photographer and environmentalist tells character-driven stories of land-use disputes in the American West. Univ....

Dyslexia, Learning, and the Brain.(BOOKSHELF)(Book review)(Bar review)
January 3, 2009... Dyslexia, Learning, and the Brain Roderick I. Nicolson and Angela J. Fawcett [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Leading researchers take a theoretical approach to a complex question: What is dyslexia? MIT, 2008, 283 p., $38.

Cranes: A Natural History of a Bird in Crisis.(BOOKSHELF)(Book review)(Brief review)
January 3, 2009... Cranes: A Natural History of a Bird in Crisis Janice M. Hughes [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An intimate profile of these statuesque waders and a call for conservation. Firefly, 2008, 256 p., $45.

A better way.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
January 3, 2009... The article "Thinning fuel before injection boosts efficiency" (SN: 10/25/08, p. 9) shows that there are many ways to find efficiency when we look. One place I see for improvement is moisture injection in the feed airstream to gasoline engines....

Good degradation.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
January 3, 2009... The deterioration of plastics described in "Long live plastics" (SN: 11/8/08, p. 34) has a brighter side: All those plastic items in landfills won't last forever. Paul Etzler, Cedar City, Utah Plastic items in landfills may not last...

The element of choice.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
January 3, 2009... Nora Volkow, NIDA director, is right on target with her four-point agenda to replace outdated and stigmatized thinking with addiction approaches that work ("It's time for addiction science to supersede stigma," SN: 11/8/08, p. 40). However, her...

Correction.(FEEDBACK)(Correction notice)
January 3, 2009... A timeline with "David, Solomon may have been kings of copper" (SN: 11/22/08, p. 10) incorrectly labeled the Iron and Bronze ages. Though scholars debate exact start dates, the Bronze Age began around 3500 B.C. and the Iron Age followed,...

R. K. Pachauri: Obama administration should lead energy transition.(COMMENT)(Interview)
January 3, 2009... RK. Pachauri, an engineer and economist by training, is director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India, and a corecipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his role as chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...

Thread of information ties diverse sciences together.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
January 17, 2009... Faces, neutrinos and consortia of microbes do not at first glance seem very much alike. But they do, in fact, have a lot in common. They are, most obviously, all examples of vibrant arenas of scientific research, thus meriting the feature...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... "Sometimes it is really very hard for us to find each other even on this planet, so finding life on another planet is a nontrivial occupation.... How do you try to get a handle on extraterrestrial life? How do you plan to look for it? How do...

Science past: January 17, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(lunar craters)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... PROPOSE CRATER THEORY -- Huge bubbles of gas bursting through the moon's surface maybe the cause of lunar craters. Two British scientists proposed in a new "blowhole theory" that gases trapped under the surface when suddenly set free would form...

Science stats: deaths from natural hazards.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Table)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... Relative numbers of deaths by county for 1970-2004 [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Top 5 causes of death Heat/drought 19.6% Winter weather 18.1% Flooding 14.0% Lightning 11.3% Other severe...

Life.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... Brain areas active when chimpanzees and macaque monkeys recognize familiar faces may be the same regions active for the task in people. Read "Primates get a neural facial." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Goldenrods that take a bow are more...

Atom & cosmos.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... Temperature variations in the radiation left over from the Big Bang are different on one side of the sky than the other--enough to suggest a new way of viewing the early universe, a study finds. See "Lopsided universe demands different...

How bizarre.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(yawning)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... The cause of yawning is hard to study in humans since the activity is contagious. So Andrew Gallup of Binghamton University in New York and colleagues turned to parrots, which don't catch the yawn from peers. The researchers report in the...

Fermi opens new window on high-energy universe: gamma-ray telescope detects bursts and pulsars.(STORY ONE)
January 17, 2009... VANCOUVER -- Curtain up! Light the lights! In its first four months monitoring the heavens from orbit, NASA's Fermi Gamma-raySpaceTelescope has unveiled the activity of celestial objects that emit powerful gamma rays--photons that pack 20...

Bacteria make molecular snorkels for surviving in crowded spaces: antibiotics that fight enemies also provide access to oxygen.(Body & Brain)
January 17, 2009... SAN FRANCISCO -- Antibiotics made by Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria can serve as molecular snorkels, helping the bacteria breathe even if buried in mucus or squeezed into the middle of a colony. The finding, reported by MIT researchers...

Smoking mice avoid symptoms of emphysema: edible drug might help fight lung disease in people.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... A compound that revs up the production of homegrown antioxidants in the body prevents emphysema from developing in mice exposed to cigarette smoke for six months, a new study finds. The study, using the experimental drug CDDO-imidazole, or...

Disorder of REM sleep may signal high risk of Parkinson's, dementia: thrashing and flailing during night might be a warning sign.(Body & Brain)
January 17, 2009... People who kick and lash out while fast asleep in bed face a high risk of developing Parkinson's disease and certain forms of dementia, scientists report. The condition, called rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, results when a...

Morphine sense has gender gap.(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... Sex equality means nothing when it comes to pain relief. Morphine is not very potent in female rats, because females have fewer of the receptors in their midbrains that sense the feel-good drug, rendering morphine "remarkably ineffective,"...

For preemies, less is more.(pregnant women and steroids)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... The decades-old practice of giving multiple courses of steroids to pregnant women at risk of delivering prematurely may actually cause harm to the baby, a study in the Dec. 20/27 Lancet shows. Kellie Murphy of the University of Toronto in...

Digital memory gets hot, in theory: controlled heat flow may one day store computer data.(Matter & Energy)
January 17, 2009... Someday, computers might store information using not only electric charges or magnetism, but also tiny packets of heat called phonons. Such heat-based memory is theoretically possible, new research shows. What's more, this memory would be...

Water on soap is recipe for chaos.(Matter & Energy)(Brief article)
January 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It might be the simplest recipe yet for using fluids to explore the world of chaos theory: a droplet bouncing on a "trampoline" made from a thin film of soapy water, which is itself moving up and down as if on a...