Science News articles from June 2003

Science News archives from June 2003

With gene therapy, ears grow new sensory cells. (Getting an earful).
June 7, 2003... Whether it's the whisper of a lover or the shouts of rapper Eminem, the hearing process works the same. Sound waves bend lashlike projections on cells within the inner ear, and these so-called hair cells respond by sending electrical impulses...

Nonstick surfaces can turn toxic at high heat. (Sticky Situation).(polymer-fume fever caused by teflon and other non-stick cooking surfaces)
June 7, 2003... Teflon and related nonstick materials are made from an ultraslippery compound, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Studies conducted during the past 40 years by many research groups demonstrate that at high temperatures, the polymer can emit...

Gecko-inspired adhesive is superstrong. (Caught on Tape).
June 7, 2003... As it scurries along the ceiling, a gecko has the sticking power to Support not just its own body weight, but about 400 times as much. Besides that sticking power, the natural adhesive on this animal's feet is clean and reusable, and it works...

Windy doings on the ringed planet. (Slowdown on Saturn?).(Saturn)
June 7, 2003... The winds in Saturn's upper atmosphere are some of the swiftest in the solar system, but recent findings suggest there's been a dramatic slowdown. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that the band of wind circling Saturn's...

Babies find their voice when given social push. (Babble Rousers).
June 7, 2003... Eight-month-old infants utter more complex, speechlike sounds when their mothers encourage them with well-timed touches and smiles rather than with words offered as models to imitate, a new study finds. This provides the first evidence that...

Parasite's host provides an insect hideaway. (Skin Scam).(Strepsiptera insects)
June 7, 2003... A group of parasitic insects tough enough to kill fire ants have shown researchers a nasty new trick. The creatures hide inside their victim by making the host form a protective bag of its own skin. The order of tiny insects called...

Treatment combinations stall colorectal cancer. (Cancer Advance).(effectiveness of Avistan )
June 7, 2003... Two experimental drugs can buy precious months of remission in some people with colorectal cancer that has spread to other tissues, new research shows. While both drugs are synthetic antibodies, they take distinctly different approaches to...

Herbal lottery: what's on a dietary supplement's label may not be what's in the bottle.
June 7, 2003... Echinacea is a commercial success. The dietary supplement--made from the flowers, stems, and leaves of the purple coneflower--has become a popular and lucrative over-the-counter cold remedy. It's also one of the few nutraceuticals--natural...

Danger detection: old and new sensors are aimed to protect troops and commuters.(preventing infection from chemical or biological weapons)
June 7, 2003... Early in the recent war with Iraq, sandstorms buffeted U.S. troops, choking lungs, guns, and tanks. But it was the potential presence of invisible threats in the air--sandstorm or not--that was most worrisome. At any time or place, it seemed,...

Heart drug derails algal toxin. (Biomedicine).(cholestyramine)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... A drug for treating high cholesterol might someday find use relieving the debilitating symptoms of poisoning from some algal toxins, animal data suggest. Algal toxins accumulate in fish and shellfish, which, when eaten, can cause symptoms...

Satellite begins its ultraviolet survey. (Astronomy).(pictures from Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... Late last month, NASA released the first images taken by the recently launched Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite. The mission is the first large sky survey at ultraviolet wavelengths and is designed to determine the history of star formation...

Findings puncture self-esteem claims. (Behavior).(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... High self-esteem may not live up to its reputation. A strong regard for one's own traits and abilities exerts few of the beneficial effects claimed for it by teachers, parents, psychotherapists, and others, according to a new review of the...

Zebra mussels to the rescue. (Biotechnology).(mussels used for water-purification systems)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... Oh, those clever Dutch engineers. They've turned zebra mussels into local environmental heroes. In the United States, immigrant zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) have been setting up ultradense colonies that rob food from native aquatic...

Finding a nearby star. (Astronomy).(near constellation Aries)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... Welcome, neighbor! Astronomers have discovered a star that may be among the very closest to us. Only 7 percent as heavy as our sun and only 0.3 percent as bright, the star lies an estimated 7.8 light-years from Earth in the direction of the...

Whale meat in Japan is loaded with mercury. (Food and Nutrition).(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... Hunting and consumption of marine mammals continues in Japan despite an international moratorium on commercial whaling. People there who eat dolphins and other toothed whales are ingesting whopping amounts of the metal mercury, new data...

Chopping up a microbial tail. (Immunology).(immune system's use of neutrophils to attack bacteria)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... Many disease-causing bacteria sport whip-like flagella that propel their movement. Scientists have now found that an enzyme produced by immune cells called neutrophils can chop up flagellin, the main protein in these tails. Neutrophils are...

Some like it hotter. (Extremophiles).(microbe found that withstands extreme heat)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... A microbe found where volcanic activity has cracked the floor of the Pacific Ocean has set a new record for the upper temperature limit for life. This organism grows readily at 121[degrees]C in the laboratory and can even survive a few hours at...

Smoking out microbes. (Nicotine).(nicotine kills bacteria)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... Nicotine, the compound that so satisfies smokers, is also a potent killer of bacteria. In test-tube studies, it can destroy more than a dozen types of bacteria, including ones that cause diseases, Saleh A. Naser of the University of Central...

Bulletproof bacteria. (Astrobiology).(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... About a decade ago, a scientific debate erupted over whether there were signs of life on a piece of rock that had been blasted from Mars and traveled to Earth. Today, few researchers believe the infamous rock ever bore microbes, but some are...

Salamander moms use bacteria to save eggs from fungi. (Mycology).(Brief Article)
June 7, 2003... Female salamanders that slither around on top of their eggs for hours may be protecting their offspring from more than hungry predators. The skin of these amphibians is inhabited by bacteria that secrete fungal-fighting compounds, according to...

Figuring It Out: What Are We? Where Do We Come From? The Parallel Visions of Artists and Archaeologists.(Book Review)
June 7, 2003... While cosmologists are defining the origins of the universe and geneticists deciphering evolution, archaeologists are tracing the path of humans from hunter-gatherers to urbanites. Visual artists also seek to understand the world but do so by...

The Hedgehog, The Fox, And Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities; Triumph And Tragedy In Mudville: A Lifelong Passion for Baseball.(Book Review)
June 7, 2003... Essayist and naturalist Gould had these two very different books in the works when he died in May 2002. The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox is a collection of original essays finished shortly before Gould's death and presented here...

The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Our Relationships.(Book Review)
June 7, 2003... The classic psychological theory of stress was based on the fight-or-flight response. In the course of her research on stress, psychologist Taylor realized that the theory was based mostly on studies of men. Taylor proposes a new paradigm, the...

Vital Signs 2003: The Trends that Are Shaping Our Future.(Book Review)
June 7, 2003... THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE This annual produced by the environmental watchdog organization the Worldwatch Institute isolates trends affecting the planet's environmental health. This year, the focus is on the differences between the world's...

Cowpox it's not. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 7, 2003... "The Vaccinia Dilemma" (SN: 4/5/03, p. 218) twice refers to vaccinia as "cowpox virus." The two are actually two separate viruses. It is unclear exactly where vaccinia comes from, as it isn't a naturally occurring virus. It is thought that the...

In the beginning? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 7, 2003... The iron-sulfide hypothesis of life's origin that Michael J. Russell and William Martin propose in "A Rocky Start" (SN: 4/26/03, p. 264) is attractive because it provides an inorganic cell wall and a matrix with some catalytic capabilities. But...

Bad copies. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 7, 2003... "Egg's missing proteins thwart primate cloning" (SN: 5/3/03, p. 286) spoke of a very interesting phenomenon that makes the cloning of primates seemingly impossible. Perhaps the nature of our DNA will resist our attempts to clone it because it...

Fossils plug gap in human origins. (African Legacy).
June 14, 2003... Three partial skulls excavated in eastern Africa, dating to between 154,000 and 160,000 years ago, represent the oldest known fossils of modern people, according to the ancient skulls' discoverers. The new finds of Homo sapiens fossils,...

Progesterone product may reduce premature births. (Full-Length Pregnancy).
June 14, 2003... A therapy first tried in the 1960s can both extend a pregnancy in a woman who is at risk of giving birth prematurely and reduce a newborn's risk of complications, a new study finds. The drug, 17-alpha-hydroxy-progesterone caproate (17P), is a...

Nanotubes make tough threads. (Super Fibers).
June 14, 2003... The superior mechanical and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes have intrigued materials scientists for a decade. But they've struggled to take advantage of the hollow tubes, just nanometers wide, for macroscopic projects. Now,...

Old mice live longer when given young ovaries. (Lease on Life).
June 14, 2003... Here's one more reason to be obsessed with reproduction. A new study with aging mice suggests that the reproductive system plays a role in determining how long animals live. James Carey and his colleagues at the University of California,...

Using hydrogen as fuel may hurt environment. (Not So Green?).
June 14, 2003... Fossil fuels are often reviled because they produce planet-warming carbon dioxide. However, replacing them with hydrogen gas--considered to be a clean-burning source of energy--may generate a different set of environmental problems, including...

Adjustable lenses from liquid droplets. (Fixed Focus).
June 14, 2003... Grinding glass is one way to make a lens. Using plastic goop, a little salt, and electricity is now another way. That's what researchers at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., have done to create lenses the size of sesame...

Clear view of globular cluster's crowded core. (Sharpening a Heavenly Image).(telescope picture of M-13)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... Using innovative optics to take the twinkle out of starlight, a telescope in Hawaii has recorded the sharpest-ever infrared images of the globular cluster M-13, a crowded grouping of Milky Way stars. The resolution is comparable to discerning...

Exotic pets bring pathogens home. (Domestic Disease).
June 14, 2003... The current outbreak of monkeypox in the Midwest is the first report of this smallpox-related virus in people in the Western Hemisphere, according to infectious-disease investigators. It's also the first time the disease has been associated...

Oceans aswirl: massive eddies influence Earth's climate, marine ecosystems, even big business.
June 14, 2003... The hallmarks of rotation are written all over the ocean. Huge currents flowing past islands and peninsulas generate enormous swirls in their wake, occasionally casting off giant whirlpools. Currents meandering across the open ocean can also...

If it looks like a sphere...Exploring the newly proposed solution to a famous problem about three-dimensional shapes.
June 14, 2003... Look around at the world, and the objects in it--buildings, trees, people, birds, insects--appear to come in an endless variety of shapes. At first, cataloging these diverse shapes may seem impossible. But on closer inspection, relationships...

Galactic RAVE. (Astonomy).(Radial Velocity Experiment survey)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... Viewing galaxies so distant that the light now reaching Earth reveals what they looked like billions of years ago isn't the only way to learn about how galaxies form. Astronomers can examine a much closer specimen--our own Milky Way. In...

Toddlers ride rail to tool use. (Behavior).
June 14, 2003... At 16 months of age, many children adapt the way they use a handrail as they walk across a perilously narrow bridge to reach their parents on the other side. These on-the-fly changes that keep them from falling represent an early example of...

Satellites unravel a spot of mystery. (Earth Science).(proton auroral spots)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... Satellites in the right places at the right time may have solved the puzzle of a strange phenomenon high in Earth's atmosphere. The so-called proton auroral spots, which glow brightest at ultraviolet wavelengths, occur at altitudes of about...

Tiny device brings out the best in sperm. (Technology).(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... Sperm cells prepare a lifetime for just one goal: the race to an unfertilized egg. Now there's a microscale apparatus that pits the little wigglers against each other in a preliminary heat. By separating top swimmers from the rest, the...

A new twist on ropes. (Physics).(mathematical analysis of the strength of ropes takes into account splices)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... The mooring and towing of oil rigs and huge ships rely on the strength and durability of thick ropes and the splices that join those ropes. Yet the mathematical models used to evaluate ropes have long left the splices out of the equations. ...

Lucky shot. (Astronomy).(picture of Helix nebula taken by Hubble Space Telescope)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... To protect itself from debris, the Hubble Space Telescope literally had to turn its back on last November's Leonid meteor storm. As luck would have it, that put the luminous Helix nebula directly in the telescopes line of sight. On May 9, NASA...

Convenient hydrogen storage? (Materials Science).(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... Hydrogen attracts attention as a clean-burning fuel that could eliminate the United States' dependence on fossil fuel. Finding a way of storing the gas safely and compactly in cars has been proving difficult, however. A team of researchers...

More fish survive if plankton bloom early. (Oceanography).(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... Data collected by Earth-orbiting satellites and oceangoing trawlers suggest that juvenile haddock off Nova Scotia are more abundant in years when plankton populations peak earlier than normal. Scientists have been surveying the abundance of...

Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants.(Book Review)
June 14, 2003... One of the world's best-known popularizers of archaeology takes readers on a tour of the Golden State from ancient times to the Spanish influx of the 16th century. The first part of the book is a broad overview of the 13,000 years from 11,200...

Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life.(Book Review)
June 14, 2003... AS a Ph.D. fellow at Caltech in the early 1980s, Mlodinow occupied an office among those of some of the world's leading physicists, including Murray Gell-Mann, John Schwarz, and Richard Feynman. Mlodinow says he found that he didn't really...

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees.(Book Review)
June 14, 2003... For the past decade, Moore has meticulously painted every tree he could find in the British Isles and Europe. Those 2,000-plus illustrations combine here with a brief overview of each tree's history as well as facts about its height, hardiness,...

A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market.(Book Review)
June 14, 2003... Mathematicians should have an edge in the stock market. You'd think their expertise and scientific sense would yield predictions of market trends. Mathematician Paulos thought that, so a few years ago, he invested in WorldCom. He held on tight...

A Short History of Nearly Everything.(Book Review)
June 14, 2003... Readers are probably most familiar with Bryson's exciting travel books. On the return from one of his exotic journeys, it occurred to him that he was relatively uninformed on matters involving matter, geology, physics, and astronomy. He then...

The true test. (Letters).(Brief Article)
June 14, 2003... "Preeclampsia Progress: Blood test for predicting pregnancy problems" (SN: 5/10/03, p. 293) says, correctly, that our research group performed ultrasound of the main blood vessel of the women's arms as a measure of vessel-cell function...

In the house. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 14, 2003... The article on the half-life of bismuth-209 ("Not even bismuth-209 lasts forever," SN: 5/3/03, p. 286) says that the alpha decay of bismuth-209 was not listed in any reference table. As much as I hate to disagree, the "Chart of the Nuclides,"...

Which wave? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 14, 2003... "Sensing a Vibe: Seismic-alert system could give Los Angeles a few seconds' warning" (SN: 5/3/03, p. 276) says that the S waves travel at about one-half the speed of the P waves. Then, in "Seismic waves resolve continental debate" on page 285...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 14, 2003... In "Bad Dancers: Childhood chills give bees six left feet" (SN: 5/24/03, p. 324), the photo of a honeybee was incorrectly credited. The photographer is Fiola Bock of the University of Wurzburg Bee Group.

Has matter's mother paid a call? (Hot Mama).(creation of quark-gluon plasma )
June 21, 2003... Physicists have found new signs that fiery particle collisions within a giant accelerator two years ago created a state of matter identical to what might have been the stuff of the newborn universe. Stunning results announced this week are...

Astronomers find a squashed star. (Stellar Top).(Achernar)
June 21, 2003... Think of the sun and other giant balls of gas that twinkle in the heavens. Conventional wisdom has it that all these stars are round. But because stars spin, they're not perfect spheres. The rotation moves material outward more strongly at the...

Viper heat sensors locate cool spots. (Snake Pits).
June 21, 2003... Researchers who glued minuscule plastic balls onto the faces of live rattlesnakes say the project has revealed the first experimental evidence of an overlooked role for the viper's heat-sensing organs. The newly tested function: finding places...

Images of tiny ion may help battery designers. (Lithium Sees the Light).(development of lithium ion batteries)
June 21, 2003... Hidden within cell phones, laptops, and digital cameras, lithium-ion batteries increasingly power the world. For the first time, researchers have imaged individual lithium ions, an achievement that could lead to better battery designs. ...

Agriculture's roots get a South Pacific twist. (New Guinea Went Bananas).
June 21, 2003... Situated in the South Pacific islands, remote New Guinea seems an unlikely place for the invention of agriculture. Yet that's precisely what happened there nearly 7,000 years ago, according to a new investigation. Inhabitants of this...

Diabetes drug protects reopened heart vessels. (Double Duty).(rosiglitazone)
June 21, 2003... A drug normally prescribed to hold blood sugar in check provides an unexpected benefit to heart patients, a new study from South Korea finds. In people who have undergone the blood vessel-opening procedure called angioplasty, the diabetes drug...

Synthetic estrogen hampers trout fertility. (Spawning Trouble).
June 21, 2003... When women take birth control pills, some of the hormones in the pills ends up in sewage effluent and waterways where it may be harming trout populations. Researchers now say that even short-term, low-level exposures to one such hormone,...

Attack of the cannibalistic bacteria. (This Week).(Bacillus subtilis behavior)(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... When the going gets tough, watch out for Bacillus subtilis. The green rods in this micrograph are living members of this bacterial species that have killed nearby B. subtilis members (red rods) for food. Like many soil-dwelling bacteria, B....

Target: celiac disease: therapies aimed to complement or replace the gluten-free diet.
June 21, 2003... Not many kids can imagine a world without cereal, pizza, or cookies. But these are just a few of the foods that Stanford University biochemist Chaitan Khosla has had to teach his 6-year-old son to avoid. The boy has celiac disease, an inherited...

Mystery in the middle: a stellar riddle turns up at the Milky Way's core.
June 21, 2003... For nearly a decade, Andrea M. Ghez has tracked the motion of stars at the Milky Way's core. The great speed with which these centrally located stars whirl around provides the best evidence to date for the existence of an extremely dense and...

Telescope spies a galactic satellite. (Astronomy).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... A huge gas cloud once considered a remnant from when the Milky Way or nearby galaxies formed is, in fact, a satellite of our galaxy, new radio telescope observations indicate. Unlike most satellites of the Milky Way, the body is orbiting in the...

Material mimics mother-of-pearl in form and substance. (Material Science).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... Gleaming, iridescent mother-of-pearl possesses more than beauty. The material, technically called nacre, has strength and toughness that materials scientists envy because it's made of highly ordered layers. Now, researchers have designed a...

Sun-tracking dads make better pollen. (Botany).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... In a rare test of paternal behavior in plants, snow buttercup flowers kept from following the sun produced less-viable pollen than unfettered flowers did. Also, in maternal flowers receiving pollen, the grains germinated better if these blooms,...

Brain perks up to uncertain threats. (Neuroscience).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... The brain shows particular sensitivity to facial expressions that convey ambiguous threats rather than clear ones, according to a new brain-imaging investigation. In their study, Reginald B. Adams Jr. of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.,...

Gene profiles might guide chemotherapy. (Genetics).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... Profiles of genetic variations in cancer patients could help oncologists predict the outcome of chemotherapy and, in some cases, indicate the most effective course of treatment, two new studies suggest. Sarada Gurubhagavatula of...

Early cancer therapy and heart problems. (Biomedicine).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... Numerous studies have indicated that children who receive certain chemotherapy drugs and chest-radiation treatments for cancer face a heightened risk of heart disease later in life. In a new study, researchers report that cardiovascular...

Cancer vaccine gets first test in patients. (Immunology).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... An experimental cancer vaccine given to 58 patients for whom all other treatments had failed induced an immune response in all of them, suggesting the vaccine can sensitize the body to the presence of tumor cells. This is the first human test...

MRI detects missed breast cancers. (Radiology).(Brief Article)
June 21, 2003... Women who carry a genetic mutation predisposing them to breast cancer should rely on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instead of mammography for their regular screenings, a new study suggests. But for women who don't harbor a mutation in either...

Blood Evidence: How DNA is Revolutionizing the Way We Solve Crimes.(Book Review)
June 21, 2003... HENRY C. LEE AND FRANK TIRNADY Lee is best known for his testimony in the O.J. Simpson trial several years ago. However, he was also the chief criminalist for Connecticut for more than 20 years. During that time, he helped introduce...

Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age.(Book Review)
June 21, 2003... BILL MCKIBBEN Soon, we will be able to genetically modify a human egg or sperm cell with a change that will pass from generation to generation. Theoretically, we will be able not only to banish genetic diseases but also to manipulate our...

Front Yard Gardens: Growing More than Grass.(Book Review)
June 21, 2003... LIZ PRIMEAU If you're tired of humdrum grass as a sole ground cover, then take a look at this guide featuring 70 different garden designs suitable for front yards. Although some people shy away from the care they think a yard full of...

The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A Story of Science, Sainthood, and the Humble Genius Who Discovered a New History of the Earth.(Book Review)
June 21, 2003... ALAN CUTLER In the 17th century, many people believed that the flood depicted in the Bible was responsible for washing seashells and fossils inland. For scientists of the day, it was a nagging mystery. In 1668, a Danish scientist named...

What Good Are Bugs? Insects in the Web of Life.(Book Review)
June 21, 2003... GILBERT WALDBAUER Generally, we view insects as a nuisance. Yet, as a group, they support virtually every ecosystem by pollinating plants, serving as food for other animals, and disposing of dead organisms--just to name a few key tasks. In...

Acid comment. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 21, 2003... "A Breath of Fresh Air: Bacteria rid sewage of its stink" (SN: 5/10/03, p. 294) could have been a little less disingenuous. It would still have been a very good article if you had used "sulfuric acid" instead of "odorless hydrogen sulfate" and...

Hot stuff. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 21, 2003... In regard to natural muses of coal fires ("The Fires Below," SN: 5/10/03,p. 298), another cause not mentioned in the article involves the oxidation of pyrite, an iron sulfide that commonly occurs in coal beds. When oxygenated groundwater...

Signs of struggle? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 21, 2003... I'm doing an elk-calf mortality study in Yellowstone National Park. We can differentiate between scavenging and predation only by such evidence as signs of struggle at the scene, a trail of blood, evidence of a chase, and the pattern of flesh...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 21, 2003... Correction "Cancer Advance: Treatment combinations stall colorectal cancer" (SN: 6/7/03, p. 358) states that the anticancer drug bevacizumab, also called Avastin, hadn't stopped breast and kidney cancer in earlier trials. Although it failed in...

New technology cleans dangerous water. (Germs Begone).
June 28, 2003... An experimental mix of chemicals permits low-cost home treatment of highly contaminated water. The packet has been designed for use in developing countries, where some 5,000 children die each day from diarrheal disease--primarily because of...

Baldness drug might avert prostate cancer. (Prevention in a Pill?).(use of finasteride )
June 28, 2003... The drug finasteride plays a curious dual role: It can help a man grow back thinning hair and also alleviate urinary problems. The drug achieves both effects by ratcheting down production of dihydrotestosterone, a hormone linked to male pattern...

Revealing the sun's complex topography. (Solar Terrain).
June 28, 2003... The sun is no smoothie. The sharpest images of the sun ever taken, released last week, show a rugged surface with gargantuan mesas and valleys formed of scalding gas. The sun's surface is textured with short-lived structures, known as...