Science News articles from July 2007

Science News archives from July 2007

Polymer breakdown: reaction offers possible way to recycle nylon.(This Week)
July 7, 2007... Each year, thousands of tons of nylon end up in landfills. But small-scale experiments may offer big hope for efficient recycling of some types of the material. Nylon-6, an artificial polymer used in carpets, clothing, and car parts, is...

Faker crayfish: males keep bluffing but don't get caught.(This Week)(big but weak crayfish claws frighten rivals)
July 7, 2007... Many males of an Australian crayfish species consistently fake their way through macho confrontations, a new analysis of rivalries indicates, even though evolutionary theory says that such bluffing should be rare. When two male slender...

Bad news for cats: cat allergen hits all allergic people.(This Week)
July 7, 2007... For people who have asthma or respiratory problems that are triggered by cats, living with Fluffy is obviously a bad idea. Now, researchers have found evidence suggesting that people who know that they have other allergies may also want to...

Hidden smarts: abstract thought trumps IQ scores in autism.(This Week)(abstract reasoning prevalent in autistic persons than intelligence)(Report)
July 7, 2007... There's more to the intelligence of autistic people than meets the IQ. Unlike most individuals, children and adults diagnosed as autistic often score much higher on a challenging, nonverbal test of abstract reasoning than they do on a standard...

Dropping the ball: air pressure helps objects sink into sand.(This Week)
July 7, 2007... Here's good news if you happen to drop something while you're strolling across a sandy section of Mars: You should be able to find what you dropped more easily than if you had dropped it into desert sands on Earth. And that's not just because...

Allergy nanomedicine: buckyballs dampen response of cells that trigger allergic reactions.(This Week)(buckminsterfullerene)
July 7, 2007... Scientists have shown that soccer ball--shaped carbon molecules, commonly called buckyballs, can block allergic responses in both human cells and mice. The findings point to a new way of treating allergies using these nanoscale particles. ...

Spermicide flip side: compound may promote papillomavirus infection.(This Week)(Nonoxynol-9)
July 7, 2007... A widely used spermicide may increase a woman's risk of contracting human papillomavirus from a sex partner, a study in mice suggests. On the other hand, a thickening agent in many vaginal lubricants sold commercially impedes the virus' ability...

Trouble in paradise: high schizophrenia rates among Pacific islanders raise cultural questions.(Palau)(Cover story)
July 7, 2007... The Micronesian islands that form the Republic of Palau, situated about 500 miles east of the Philippines, boast the sun-washed beaches and lush greenery of a tropical paradise. But behind the picture-postcard scenery lurks a disturbing...

Restoring scents: faulty sniffers may get help.
July 7, 2007... Betty (not her real name) remembers the day 9 years ago when she fully experienced an orange. As she split the fruit's skin, the sections, citrus scents sprayed into the air and the 51-year-old woman experienced a sensory epiphany: "Whoa! This...

Blind people excel at serial recall.(BEHAVIOR)(sequential order recall)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... Blindness from birth fosters a superior ability to learn and remember ordered sequences of information, a new study indicates. Blind people recall much longer word sequences than sighted individuals do, report Noa Raz of the Hebrew...

Icebergs can be biological hot spots.(OCEANOGRAPHY)(biodiversity)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... Material scraped off land by glaciers and carried to sea by icebergs nourishes life in frigid Antarctic waters. Late in 2005, oceanographers conducted separate biological surveys near two large icebergs in the South Atlantic. One, an ice...

Linking stress and senility.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... Studies have suggested that emotional stress earl increase a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Now, scientists have found a gene that may explain the connection. Paul E. Sawchenko of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies...

Pas de deux for a three-scoop particle.(PHYSICS)(research on three-quark particles)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... Two experiments running simultaneously at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., have observed a new particle called the cascade baryon. It is one of the most massive examples yet of a baryon--a class of particles made of...

Enzyme is target in parasite.(BIOCHEMISTRY)(thioredoxin glutathione reductase in Schistosoma mansoni flatworm)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... The flatworm that causes the tropical disease schistosomiasis has a newly discovered Achilles' heel that drugmakers might be able to exploit. The target is an enzyme called thioredoxin glutathione reductase (TGR). Biochemist David L....

Oldest siblings show slight IQ advantage.(BEHAVIOR)(intelligence)(Report)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... For more than a century, researchers have argued about whether first-born children tend to surpass their later-born siblings in intelligence. A large study now indicates that eldest sons indeed score slightly higher on IQ tests than boys with...

Smallest laser minds the gap.(PHYSICS)(using lasers for computer processors)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... The smallest, most efficient laser yet, a nanoscale device that consumes just I microwatt of power, could one day be a component of faster computers. Toshihiko Baba of Yokohama National University in Japan and his colleagues constructed...

Antibiotics in infancy tied to asthma.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
July 7, 2007... Children given multiple doses of antibiotics before their first birthdays have a heightened risk of asthma later, a study shows. Researchers analyzed the medical records of 13,116 children born in Manitoba in 1995. Roughly 6 percent of the...

Hex sine?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... The NASA researchers baffled by the hexagonal shape in Saturn's soupy atmosphere at its northern pole ("A hexagon on the ringed planet," SN: 4/28/07, p. 269) should read "As waters part, polygons appear" (SN: 6/3/06, p. 348). It is worth...

Snore and more.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... I was surprised that the findings on the brain's processing of information and discerning of relationships would come as a surprise ("Sleep on It: Time delay plus slumber equals memory boost,") SN: 4/28/07, p. 260). I have long been aware of,...

Safety first.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... A concern I have for a new route algorithm ("Lost in transportation," SN: 5/5/07, p. 285) to replace algorithms that "may overlook shorter routes for the sake of following major highways" is exemplified by the fact that here in southern Oregon,...

Vaccinated.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... VACCINATED PAUL A. OFFIT Maurice Hilleman is relatively unknown, but he was responsible for 9 of the 14 vaccines routinely administered to children today, Offit writes. These vaccines have rendered once devastating diseases such as mumps...

Atlantic Coast Beaches: A Guide to Ripples, Dunes, and Other Natural Features of the Seashore.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... Atlantic Coast Beaches: A Guide to Ripples, Dunes, and Other Natural Features of the Seashore. WILLIAM J. NEAL, ORRIN H. PILKEY, AND JOSEPH T. KELLEY The beach offers more than a place to soak up sun and collect seashells, these three...

When a Gene Makes You Smell Like a Fish ... And Other Tales About The Genes in Your Body.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... WHEN A GENE MAKES YOU SMELL LIKE A FISH... And Other Tales About The Genes in Your Body. LISA SEACHRIST CHIU Trimethylaminuria, otherwise known as fish-odor syndrome, is a devastating condition whose origin, until recently, remained...

Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... INCLUSION: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research Steven Epstein Until the mid-1980s, few medical researchers paid heed to sexual and cultural differences when designing clinical trials. They based their investigations on a...

Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... UNKNOWN QUANTITY: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra John Derbyshire For mathematicians, the invention of algebra made it possible to think symbolically. Author Derbyshire, a mathematician, traces the history of algebra and reveals...

Tumor suicide: gene therapy makes cancer cells self-destruct.(This Week)(pancreatic cancer)
July 14, 2007... More than 37,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and nearly all of those cases will be untreatable. Now, scientists have developed a gene therapy that kills pancreatic tumors in mice by causing...

Sea change: people have affected what penguins eat.(This Week)
July 14, 2007... The eating habits of Adelie penguins in Antarctica changed significantly about 200 years ago, according to chemical analyses of the birds' eggshells. Scientists attribute the shift in diet to whaling and other hunting in the region. The...

E-waste hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals.(This Week)(electronic waste, polybrominated diphenyl ethers)
July 14, 2007... Residents of a Chinese region where 80 percent of families include workers who dismantle and recycle electronic devices have high concentrations of flame-retardant chemicals in their blood, researchers report. Inhabitants of a fishing village...

Smoke this: Parkinson's is rarer among tobacco users.(This Week)
July 14, 2007... Call it a flimsy silver lining to a noxious blue cloud: Long-term smokers have half the risk of Parkinson's disease that nonsmokers do, according to a new report. In 12,000 people studied, those who smoked the most--the equivalent of at...

Shattering find? Comet fragments show surprising uniformity.(This Week)
July 14, 2007... When comets pass close to the sun, solar radiation can bake and chemically alter their outer layers. Yet new observations of fragments of a comet that broke apart almost in front of astronomers' eyes suggest that its interior was remarkably...

Forget about it: how the brain suppresses unwanted memories.(This Week)
July 14, 2007... Not only can people intentionally forget disturbing memories, but they do so thanks to a pair of previously unreported neural processes, a new study finds. Researchers have long argued about the existence of memory suppression and...

Pulling strings: stretching proteins can reveal how they fold.(This Week)
July 14, 2007... Proteins, long strings of amino acids, spontaneously fold into intricate shapes that enable them to perform a cell's dazzling variety of functions. To better understand the forces that determine these shapes, scientists have developed a...

Passages: revealing the nature of exoplanets.(Cover story)
July 14, 2007... Eleven years ago, David Charbonneau was a new graduate student at Harvard University's astronomy department, eager to explore the birth of the universe. "Then I learned of the incredible first discoveries that had just been announced in...

Brain attack: progress is slow in finding better ischemic-stroke therapies.
July 14, 2007... About a year ago, E. Gail Anderson Holness was in church when she suddenly felt lightheaded. At first, the then-49-year-old minister, motivational speaker, and Washington, D.C.-based writer didn't think that the episode was serious, even though...

Mouse method turns skin cells to stem cells.(BIOMEDICINE)(reprogramming mouse skin cells)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... Scientists have reprogrammed mouse skin cells to mimic embryonic stem cells that can morph into any type of cell in the body. Last year, Shinya Yamanaka and his team at Kyoto University in Japan found that they could insert into skin...

Dust delays Martian rover.(PLANETARY SCIENCE)(Opportunity)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... For 9 months, the Mars rover Opportunity has inched along the perimeter of an 800-meter-wide crater called Victoria, while NASA scientists debated where--and whether--the robot should attempt a descent into the 70-m-deep hole. Although the...

Gooey solution to a sticky problem.(BIOCHEMISTRY)(qniumucin extracted from jellyfishes)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... Researchers in Japan have extracted a new, gooey, and potentially useful protein from the bodies of jellyfish. The sugar-laden molecule, a member of the mucin family, is similar to proteins found in human mucus and other natural lubricants and...

Hepatitis B drug creates HIV resistance.(BIOMEDICINE)(entecavir)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... In people infected with both the hepatitis B virus and the AIDS virus HIV, a widely used treatment for hepatitis also causes HIV to develop drug resistance, scientists report. Chloe Thio of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in...

As the last ice age waned, a great lake was born.(EARTH SCIENCE)(Canada's Lake Agassiz)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... During the final millennia of the last ice age, what was briefly the world's largest lake sat along the southwestern edge of the ice sheet that smothered eastern Canada. Researchers have now determined when that lake first formed. At one...

More bang for the biofuel buck.(BIOTECHNOLOGY)(use of microorganisms in biofuel production)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... Microbes that ferment ethanol from glycerol, a by-product of biodiesel production, could add an economically valuable new ingredient to the biofuel industry, researchers report. Industrial plants that make biodiesel by processing vegetable...

Adding to nature's repertoire.(BIOTECHNOLOGY)(making proteins with synthetic amino acids)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... Out of thousands of possible kinds of amino acid, virtually all organisms use just 20 to build the proteins they need. Now, scientists have expanded this palette by coaxing some cells from mice to make proteins that include synthetic amino...

Anemone reveals complex past.(GENETICS)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... Animals evolved complex genomes surprisingly early, new research shows. The recently completed genome of the starlet sea anemone, a primitive animal that last shared an ancestor with humans and other vertebrates about 700 million years ago, has...

Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... GLUT: Mastering Information through the Ages ALEX WRIGHT As people become increasingly connected through digital means and a flood of information is readily available through the Internet, the idea of information systems has gained greater...

Jacquard's Web: How a Hand Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... JACQUARD'S WEB: How a Hand Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age. JAMES ESSINGER It seems unlikely that a loom would spark the computer age. But, as Essinger explains, French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard did just that with his...

Where's My Jetpack? A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... WHERE'S MY JETPACK? A Guide to the Amazing science Fiction Future that Never Arrived DANIEL H. WILSON Robotic maids, wholly enclosed cities, and jetpacks. These are among the life-altering advances imagined by science fiction visionaries...

Tropical Plants of Costa Rica: A Guide to Native and Exotic Flora.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... TROPICAL PLANTS OF COSTA RICA: A Guide to Native and Exotic Flora WILLOW ZUCHOWSKI Did you know that the coffee plant has a relative with showy, bright-red flowers that's known as hot lips? Or that guava has been used to treat ailments...

At least a few years to prepare.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... "Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?" (SN: 4/21/07, p. 244) posits that every 64 million years a mass die-off occurs due to increased cosmic rays. When will the cosmic rays again be at their maximum? ROBERT RICHARDS,...

Fuel me once?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... Ethanol is not an alternative to petroleum-based fuel to reduce air pollution ("Not-So-Clear Alternative: In its air-quality effects, ethanol fuel is similar to gasoline," SN: 5/5/07, p. 278). It is a grow-it-at-home alternative to...

AIDS abated; genome scans illuminate immune control of HIV.(This Week)
July 21, 2007... Some people who contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, maintain low amounts of the virus in their bodies for years. These long-term nonprogressors--so called because a decade or more can pass before they develop full-blown AIDS--have...

Birth of an island: megaflood severed Europe from Britain.(This Week)(Great Britain's Northern Paleovalley)
July 21, 2007... Hundreds of thousands of years ago, as an ice age was ending, the spillover from an immense glacial lake in northern Europe sliced through a broad ridge that for millions of years had connected what is now England to the continent. The flood...

Persistent prions: soilbound agents are more potent.(This Week)
July 21, 2007... Deformed proteins called prions cause fatal brain-destroying disorders, such as chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and mad cow disease, which can infect people. Evidence suggests that prions make their way into animals' nervous systems...

Check on checkers: in perfect game, there's no winner.(This Week)(computer chess program)
July 21, 2007... Computers can now play a flawless game of checkers. A calculation that began almost 2 decades ago shows that if both players make perfect moves, the game will be a draw every time. The achievement makes checkers the most complicated game to...

Den mothers: bears shift dens as ice deteriorates.(This Week)
July 21, 2007... Pregnant polar bears in northern Alaska are now more likely to dig their birthing dens on land or landbound ice than on the offshore ice they once used, according to 20 years of records. This landward trend probably reflects the decline of...

Brain seasoning: a common spice could deter Alzheimer's.(This Week)(research of turmeric)
July 21, 2007... Past research has suggested that a common spice in Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine may improve mental performance in elderly people. Now, scientists have discovered a mechanism by which this spice, called turmeric, could help the body clear...

Chemical conversation: red blood cells send a signal that makes platelets less sticky.(This Week)
July 21, 2007... Primarily known for their work hauling oxygen to tissues throughout the body, red blood cells may also play a part in regulating activities of another blood component. The cells can release a chemical that signals blood-clotting platelets to...

The power of induction: cutting the last cord could resonate with our increasingly gadget-dependent lives.(wireless power system)
July 21, 2007... Matin Soljacic was understandably nervous. The young physicist was about to give his first public presentation of an idea that sounded almost too good to be true. There was no telling how his audience, at a Berkeley, Calif., symposium, would...

Mathematical lives of plants: why plants grow in geometrically curious patterns.(Cover story)
July 21, 2007... The seeds of a sunflower, the spines of a cactus, and the bracts of a pinecone all form whirling spiral patterns. Remarkable for their regularity and beauty, these natural structures also show some surprising mathematical properties. In...

Brain stem cells help Parkinson's monkeys.(NEUROSCIENCE)(Brief article)
July 21, 2007... Monkeys with a Parkinson's disease-like disorder showed signs of improvement after receiving transplants of human-brain stem cells. The treated monkeys began to walk and eat again, while their untreated companions continued to degenerate. ...

Alcohol problems hit nearly 1 in 3 adults.(BEHAVIOR)(Brief article)
July 21, 2007... A new, large-scale survey of U.S. adults finds that about 30 percent report having engaged in harmful patterns of alcohol consumption. Nearly 18 percent cite past or current alcohol abuse, which includes repeatedly missing work because of...

Hyperion's hydrocarbons.(PLANETARY SCIENCE)(Saturn's moon)(Brief article)
July 21, 2007... Astronomers have confirmed the existence of frozen water on the surface of Saturn's moon Hyperion and have also discovered solid carbon dioxide there. The evidence comes from spectra taken by the Cassini spacecraft during the first flyby of the...

Double-decker solar cell.(ENERGY)(Brief article)
July 21, 2007... Researchers have created a two-layer solar cell that's the most efficient yet among cells made of organic materials. It's essentially a two-solar cell sandwich with a transparent film in the middle. The top layer picks up the higher-energy...

Crystal matchmaker.(MATERIALS SCIENCE)(quasicrystals)(Brief article)
July 21, 2007... Having evolved from mathematical playthings to curiosities of physics, the structures known as quasicrystals could become great tools for the electronics industry. Like crystals, quasicrystals are built from units of atoms arranged in an...

fryPod: lightning strikes iPod users.(TECHNOLOGY)(Brief article)
July 21, 2007... A jogger wearing one of the popular iPod music players suffered second-degree ear and neck burns, burst eardrums, and jaw fractures after lightning struck a nearby tree. Doctors say that the wires leading to the iPod's earbuds channeled...

Quantum leak?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 21, 2007... Perhaps there need not be "degrees of quantumness" ("Degrees of Quantumness: Shades of gray in particle-wave duality," SN: 5/12/07, p. 292). As the beams pass increasingly closer to the surface, the plate will induce a small (but increasingly...

Good bugs, bad bugs.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 21, 2007... Kudos for "Our Microbes, Ourselves" (SN: 5/19/07, p. 314). I think this holistic view of the microbe community--rather than investigating the single organism--offers a hopeful path to numerous insights for preventive measures for optimum...

Tea to a fit.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 21, 2007... The fact that various teas contain beneficial antioxidants is well-known ("Slimming on oolong," SN: 5/19/07, p. 318). Many claim to be slimming. Is it only oolong that inhibits fat absorption, and, if so, why? JAMES C. MATTHEWS, CORAL...

Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 21, 2007... INGENIUM: Five Machines That Changed the World MARK DENNY The automobile, the computer, and countless other technological advances have obviously changed the way we live. In a book that blends history and physics, Denny introduces five...

Neptune's Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 21, 2007... NEPTUNE'S ARK: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas DAVID RAINS WALLACE Hidden beneath the tranquil waters off the Pacific coast of the United States is a dynamic, diverse assortment of sea creatures. Wallace profiles the ancient and modern aquatic...

The Telescope: Its History, Technology, and Future.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 21, 2007... THE TELESCOPE: Its History, Technology, and Future GEOFF ANDERSEN The first documented patent for a telescope was awarded to spectacle maker Hans Lippershey. Galileo simply perfected the design. His true claim to fame stems from the fact...

Crocodile: Evolution's Greatest Survivor.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 21, 2007... CROCODILE: Evolution's Greatest Survivor LYNNE KELLY A living relic of the past, the crocodile is at once attractive and terrifying. Kelly, a science teacher and writer, takes a close look at these fierce predators, which often appear in...

The World of the Vikings.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 21, 2007... THE WORLD OF THE VIKINGS RICHARD HALL The Vikings, author Hall reveals, were much more than the plunderous adventurers of popular legend. In this comprehensive guide, he traces the viking people from their origins in Scandinavia around the...

Weighting for friends: obesity spreads in social networks.(This week)
July 28, 2007... Although a variety of personal traits influence weight gain, obesity is socially contagious, moving from person to person through networks of friends and relatives, a new investigation finds. The study, the first to examine how social ties...

Good light: sun early in life could protect against MS.(This week)
July 28, 2007... A half-century ago, doctors from Europe and North America who spent time in central Africa were struck by the absence of multiple sclerosis there. Indeed, the farther from the equator people lived, the more prevalent multiple sclerosis (MS)...

Stunting growth: ozone will trim plants' carbon-storing power.(This Week)
July 28, 2007... Increases in low-altitude ozone predicted for the upcoming century will stifle the growth of vegetation in maw regions, causing planet-warming carbon dioxide to build up in Earth's atmosphere more quickly than had been expected, a new model...

Sop story: new porous gel soaks up heavy metal.(This Week)
July 28, 2007... A team of chemists has created a new porous material that's extremely effective at sopping up mercury. Called a chalcogenide aerogel or simply a chaleogel, the material could be used as a filter for cleaning contaminated drinking water. The...

Grim reap purr: nursing home feline senses the end.(This Week)
July 28, 2007... Stephen King, take note. A cat in Rhode Island knows when death is nigh. Two years ago, the staff of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence adopted a gray-and-white kitten. They named him Oscar and moved him to the...

Sweet gatekeeper: receptor depends on sugar and water.(This Week)(acetylcholine receptors)
July 28, 2007... Acetylcholine receptors, structures on the membranes of nerve and muscle cells, act as gateways for the passage of chemical signals. The first high-resolution image of the functional part of these receptors hints at the significance of two...

Heavenly chemistry: astronomers announce astrophysical anion.(This Week)
July 28, 2007... The discovery of a negatively charged organic molecule in space may provide new insight into the formation of amino acids, sugars, and other prebiologic compounds in interstellar gas clouds, the regions that spawn stars and planets. The...

Slick serpent.(This Week)(Brief article)
July 28, 2007... Oil plunging into a pan filled with the same fluid drags along a thin sheet of air, which keeps the streaming fluid from immediately merging with the bath, says Matthew Thrasher of the University of Texas at Austin. By rotating the pan,...

Not-so-elementary bee mystery: detectives sift clues in the case of the missing insects.(U.S. honeybees )
July 28, 2007... The disappearance of large numbers of U.S. honeybees is so odd that it's attracted Ian Lipkin. Since last fall, beekeepers in at least 35 states have reported colonies that shrank rapidly for no apparent reason. Adult bees just go missing,...

Virtual surgery: doctors can simulate heart operations with the click of a mouse.
July 28, 2007... Board an airplane and you can rest assured that it underwent rigorous safety testing before its first flight and, in fact, before it was even built. You can feel confident that engineering software searched across a vast range of design...

Antidepressants trim suicide tries.(BEHAVIOR)(Brief article)
July 28, 2007... Two extensive new investigations indicate that depressed people who take antidepressant drugs generally become less likely to attempt suicide. Gregory E. Simon and James Savarino of Group Health Cooperative, a health maintenance...

Old viruses have new tricks.(MICROBIOLOGY)(Brief article)
July 28, 2007... Only a few years ago, biologists stumbled upon the fact that cells use RNA snippets called microRNAs as tools to control the activity of genes. Now it appears that some viruses also carry codes for microRNAs that can control the genes of...

Erosion accelerates along Alaskan coast.(EARTH SCIENCE)(Brief article)
July 28, 2007... Rates of erosion along Alaska's northern coast have more than doubled in recent decades, overhead views suggest. Mud-rich permafrost cliffs standing 3 to 4 meters tall constitute much of the shore that runs from Barrow, Alaska, to the...