Science News articles from June 2006

Science News archives from June 2006

Pumped-up poison ivy: carbon dioxide boosts plant's size, toxicity.(This Week)
June 3, 2006... Whatever troubles climate change might bring to the world's other species, rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be the best thing yet for poison ivy. An outdoor experiment mimicking the carbon dioxide rise predicted for this...

Herpes runs interference; researchers discover how virus sticks around.(This Week)
June 3, 2006... Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), which causes cold sores, uses a short, double-stranded RNA to outwit a cell's defensive measures. That's why it can hang out in the body indefinitely, new research suggests. By disrupting this mechanism,...

Wrong impression: bipolar kids misinterpret facial cues as hostile.(This Week)
June 3, 2006... Children with bipolar disorder are more likely than other kids to read hostility in bland facial expressions, a new study shows. Misinterpreting social cues might contribute to irritability and the unprovoked aggression that bipolar children...

Lazarus, the amphibian.(This Week)(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Missing for more than a decade and feared to be extinct, a painted frog has resurfaced. At least one population of the subspecies Atelopus ebenoides marinkellei remains in a remote desert highland of Colombia, researchers discovered last month....

Oil booms: whales don't avoid noise of seismic exploration.(This Week)
June 3, 2006... Field tests in the Gulf of Mexico suggest that sperm whales there don't swim away from boats conducting seismic surveys of the seafloor. However, the surveys' noise--typically generated during the hunt for oil and natural gas deposits--may be...

Stones of contention: tiny Homo species tied to ancient tool tradition.(This Week)
June 3, 2006... New discoveries have shifted a prehistoric, island controversy from bones to stones. Simple stone tools accompanied the fossils of Homo floresiensis, the half-size human cousin that inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores around 74,000 to...

String trio: novel instrument strums like guitar, rings like bell.(This Week)
June 3, 2006... At the heart of many of the world's musical instruments is the same, simple component--a string stretched tight between two points. Plucked, bowed, or struck, each of an instrument's strings creates ear-catching vibrations. Now,...

Quantum-dot leap: tapping tiny crystals' inexplicable light-harvesting talent.
June 3, 2006... One frustration of solar energy is that although it's free, clean, and inexhaustible, it's a major challenge to harvest efficiently. Consider what happens when photons of sunlight hit a solar cell: They strike electrons in semiconductor...

Blood, iron, and gray hair: anemia in old age is a rising concern.
June 3, 2006... The life of a red blood cell is brief but fast paced. Each heartbeat pumps millions of the tiny cells into the body's vascular system at speeds of more than a meter per second. In about a minute, they can carry oxygen from the lungs to tissues...

Jarring clues to Tut's white wine.(ARCHAEOLOGY)(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Scientists studying jars recovered from King Tutankhamen's tomb have extracted the first chemical evidence of white wine in ancient Egypt. A team led by Maria Rosa Guasch-Jane of the University of Barcelona analyzed the chemical makeup of...

As waters part, polygons appear.(PHYSICS)(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Imagine a hurricane with an eye in the shape of a propeller amid the swirling clouds. Physicists have observed something almost as strange in whirlpools that they made by swirling liquids in a novel way. Within the whirlpools, they've seen...

Common drugs offer some hot flash relief.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... A variety of drugs can slightly reduce the number of hot flashes that a woman experiences during menopause, an overview of studies finds. Studies have shown that estrogen therapy can substantially reduce hot flashes. However, studies of...

At iconic Asian temple, monkeys harbor viruses.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Across parts of Asia, Hindu and Buddhist temples often double as sanctuaries for free-ranging monkeys. Such sites can also shelter monkey viruses, a new report indicates. Because local residents and tourists frequent these so-called monkey...

Evolving genes may not size up brain.(NEUROSCIENCE)(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Two gene variants previously proposed as contributors to the evolution of human brain size exert no influence on brain volume in people today, a new report indicates. If these particular genes indeed spread quickly by natural selection, that...

Yellow Fever: A Deadly Disease Poised to Kill Again.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 3, 2006... YELLOW FEVER: A Deadly Disease Poised to Kill Again JAMES L DICKERSON Today, people in the developed world view yellow fever as a relic of the past. However, Dickerson explains, yellow fever is a prime candidate for reemergence both as a...

Murmurs from the Deep: Scientific Adventure in the Caribbean.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 3, 2006... MURMURS FROM THE DEEP: Scientific Adventure in the Caribbean GILLES FONTENEAU Following a life long dream sparked when he sailed, as a teenager with famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, Fonteneau launched his own maritime expedition in...

Engaging Autism: Using the Floortime Approach to Help Children Relate, Communicate, and Think.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 3, 2006... ENGAGING AUTISM: Using the Floortime Approach to Help Children Relate, Communicate, and Think STANLEY I. GREENSPAN AND SERNA WIEDER Autism or an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) may affect 1 in every 170 children. The disorders are...

Final Report: An Archaeologist Excavates His Past.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 3, 2006... FINAL REPORT: An Archaeologist Excavates His Past MICHAEL D. COE Coe, professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale University, is an authority on the ancient Maya, Olmec, and Mesoamerican cultures. In this book, he trains his archaeological...

Hope Diamond: The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 3, 2006... HOPE DIAMOND: The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem RICHARD KURIN Long before the Hope Diamond arrived in 1958 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, it was shrouded in legend. Indeed, many people believed that the famed...

Latitude adjustments.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 3, 2006... "Shafts of snow sculpted by sun" (SN: 4/1/06, p. 206) doesn't say that penitentes appear only in the Andes, nor does it say in what part of the Andes they appear. Does the formation of penitentes require that the sun be nearly directly overhead...

Sorry, you lose.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 3, 2006... I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the "male spiders woo lifelessly" slipped right by ("Hairy crab lounges deep in the Pacific," "On a dare, teen advances...

Corrections.(Letters)(Correction notice)
June 3, 2006... "Microbe holds fast" (SN: 4/29/06, p. 269) should have said that a "10-centimeter-by-10-cm square" of the adhesive described, not a "10-square-centimeter surface," could potentially hold 70 tons. In "Indy's Best: Young scientists cross the...

Homegrown defender: urinary infections face natural guard.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
June 10, 2006... Bacteria are adept at sneaking past our defenses, succeeding most often when swallowed, inhaled, or given free passage via a cut or scratch. But over the past 2 decades, scientists have found that even before the immune system can gin up a...

Mini solar systems? Astronomers find disks around planet-size objects.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
June 10, 2006... Planet-making disks of gas, dust, and ice are known to form around stars and brown dwarfs. But now, disks with the potential to form planets, or at least moons, have been found outside the solar system orbiting objects that themselves are no...

Walking on water: tree frog's foot uses dual method to stick.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
June 10, 2006... Tree frogs' feet aren't nearly as powerful as those of the well-studied gecko, but their traction is good enough that they can grip the underside of a wet, slick leaf. Now, researchers have evidence that the tree frog's foot may be surprisingly...

All the rage: survey extends reach of explosive-anger disorder.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
June 10, 2006... A mental disorder that encompasses a wide range of recurring, hostile outbursts, including domestic violence and road rage, characterizes considerably more people than previous data had indicated, a national survey finds. At some point in...

Ancient wisdom: Chinese extract may yield diabetes treatment.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
June 10, 2006... A plant extract used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat type 2 diabetes could form the basis for new treatments for the disease, scientists now report. In some cases of type 2 diabetes, a person's pancreas doesn't produce enough...

Leggiest animal: champ millipede located after 79-year gap.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
June 10, 2006... A millipede species with up to 750 legs, the most recorded on any animal, has turned up in its tiny native range in California after decades with no sightings, biologists say. The Illaeme plenipes millipede has never been found beyond a...

Toxic tides: another reason to worry about hurricanes.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
June 10, 2006... When Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne struck Florida in the summer of 2004, they killed 116 people, left thousands homeless, and caused billions of dollars in damage. Now, scientists suggest that the storms may also have triggered...

Springfield theory: mathematical references abound on The Simpsons.
June 10, 2006... In the 1995 Halloween episode of the award-winning animated sitcom The Simpsons, two-dimensional Homer Simpson accidentally jumps into the third dimension. During his j ourney in this strange world, geometric solids and mathematical formulas...

Gritty clues: how soil can tell stories of the past.
June 10, 2006... At the base of Monticello Mountain, just below Thomas Jefferson's historic estate in Charlottesville, Va., sits a 90-meter-long greenstone wall. The Rivanna River runs on one side. On the other, earth has piled up to the waifs top. Built up...

Deep-sea action.(EARTH SCIENCE)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... Scientists using remotely operated vehicles have reported the first close-up observations of a deep undersea volcano during its eruption. The peak lies about 60 kilometers northwest of Rota, one of the Western Pacific's Northern Mariana...

Zits in tubeworms: part of growing up.(BIOLOGY)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... Young tubeworms in the deep ocean break out with skin infections as a rite of passage to adulthood, according to a new notion of their growth. As the youngsters settle down in their permanent homes, they lose their mouths and digestive...

Chimps lead way to HIV birthplace.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)(in southeastern Cameroon)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... The global AIDS epidemic originated in chimpanzees living in southeastern Cameroon, a viral analysis confirms. An international team of scientists analyzed 599 fecal specimens from 10 forest sites in Cameroon and found evidence of simian...

For women, weight gain spells heartburn.(EPIDEMIOLOGY)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... A study of more than 10,000 women suggests that weight gain is associated with heartburn. Furthermore, while previous research had linked obesity with heartburn, a report in the June 1 New England Journal of Medicine indicates that any...

Hand gels falter.(HYGIENE)
June 10, 2006... Alcohol-based gels may not effectively eliminate from people's hands a type of virus that causes millions of cases of diarrhea worldwide each year, say researchers. Such hand sanitizers are rising in popularity because of their...

Dive suits could spread disease.(MARINE SCIENCE)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... Divers' wetsuits can harbor bacteria that cause diseases in coral and people, a new study suggests. The finding could lead to new guidelines for cleaning gear after dives. Coral reefs are rapidly declining worldwide, and infectious...

Can supplements nix kidney stones?(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... Certain bacteria seem to degrade the compound that forms kidney stones. However, the vast majority of commercially available probiotic supplements, which contain a variety of bacteria strains, don't appear to have this effect, according to new...

Cooked garlic still kills bacteria.(ANTIBIOTICS)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... Researchers have long known that chemicals isolated from raw garlic can kill a wide variety of bacteria, but the cooked herb hadn't been tested. A new study suggests that cooked garlic can still kill bacteria, though less efficiently than does...

Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 10, 2006... NATURE NOIR: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra JORDAN FISHER SMITH Most people view U.S. national parks as places of unspoiled nature and peacefulness. As a park ranger, Smith became well acquainted with the darker side of the...

How To Write and Publish a Scientific Paper: Sixth Edition.(How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 6th ed.)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 10, 2006... HOW TO WRITE AND PUBLISH A SCIENTIFIC PAPER: Sixth Edition ROBERT A. DAY AND BARBARA GASTEL A scientific experiment, Day and Gastel explain, is not complete until its results are published. To that end, they provide this guide to writing...

Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 10, 2006... SUSTAINABLE FOSSIL FUELS: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy MARK JACCARD With gasoline prices at a peak in the United States and international tensions over oil supplies increasing, many consumers and energy...

Treehouses in Paradise: Fantasy Designs for the 21st Century.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 10, 2006... TREEHOUSES IN PARADISE: Fantasy Designs for the 21st Century DAVID GREENBERG Greenberg describes himself as an antiarchitect--one who rebels against traditions--and contends that tree houses are the ultimate manifestation of that ethic. In...

Secrets of the Savanna: Twenty-Three Years in the African Wilderness Unraveling the Mysteries of Elephants and People.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 10, 2006... SECRETS OF THE SAVANNA: Twenty-Three Years in the African Wilderness Unraveling the Mysteries of Elephants and People MARK AND DELIA OWENS In the early 1990s, the United Nations banned the ivory trade worldwide, putting out of business...

Know the drill.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 10, 2006... Could it be that the ancient teeth discovered with drill marks but no signs of fillings ("Mystery Drilling: Ancient teeth endured dental procedures," SN: 4/8/06, p. 213) were drilled to relieve abscesses? On a long holiday weekend years ago, a...

What smells?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 10, 2006... Although I love finding out about how traits supposedly unique to humans are shared by animals, I don't see how the experiment in "Hummingbirds can clock flower refills" (SN: 4/15/06, p. 237) demonstrates episodic memory in hummingbirds. How is...

Moon shot.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 10, 2006... It seems that each of the moons of all of the planets within our solar system--and even some moons outside of our solar system-are named ("Brilliant! Tenth planet turns out to be a shiner," SN: 4/15/06, p. 230). However, it strikes me as...

Get ready, here it comes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 10, 2006... A great earthquake occurs on average every 130 years in the southern part of the San Andreas fault ("Region at Risk," SN: 4/15/06, p. 234), so Los Angeles is long overdue. Make no mistake, loss of life, injuries, and damage will be on an...

Next line of defense: new drugs take on resistant leukemia.(This Week)(called dasatinib and nilotinib)
June 17, 2006... In the past few years, the breakthrough drug imatinib has changed chronic myeloid leukemia from a death sentence to a treatable disease. But 17 percent of patients taking the drug, also called Gleevec, become resistant to its protective effects...

Mixed butterflies: tropical species joins ranks of rare hybrids.(This Week)
June 17, 2006... A South American butterfly has a checkered past, say biologists. It's one of the few animal species that seems to have arisen via a supposedly rare path: crossing two older species. A black butterfly flashing bold stripes, Heliconius...

Carbon goes glam: treated carbon dots fluoresce.(This Week)
June 17, 2006... Chemists have fashioned tiny dots of carbon that glow in response to light. The nanoparticles may find uses in biological imaging as alternatives to quantum dots, fluorescent spheres of semiconductors. Although scientists envision quantum...

Mineral deposit: asbestos linked to lupus, arthritis.(This Week)
June 17, 2006... A new study of residents from Libby, Mont., the town where more than 1,500 people have fallen ill from asbestos-contaminated mines, links asbestos exposure with three autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis. Previous research...

Fat friends: gut-microbe partners bring in more calories.(This Week)
June 17, 2006... The collaborative efforts of two common gut microbes could increase the calories that a person extracts from food and stores as fat, a new study in mice suggests. Trillions of bacteria and archaea--single-celled organisms that resemble...

Ancient webbed masters.(This Week)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... Newly unearthed fossils of a 110-million-year-old species bolster the notion that all modern birds evolved from aquatic ancestors. Fragmentary fossils of Gansus yumenensis collected earlier had suggested that it was a wading bird similar to...

Wasting away: Prozac loses promise as anorexia nervosa fighter.(This Week)
June 17, 2006... Psychiatrists often prescribe fluoxetine, or Prozac, to people suffering from the difficult-to-treat, potentially fatal condition known as anorexia nervosa. Yet the medication appears to provide no benefit in treating the eating disorder, a new...

Greenhouse glass: squeezing and heating carbon dioxide yields exotic, see-through solid.(This Week)
June 17, 2006... As ordinary citizens wring their hands over global warming from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists are wringing new chemical insights from the usually gaseous compound. In the latest extreme exploration, researchers in Italy have for...

Growing up online: young people jump headfirst into the Internet's world.
June 17, 2006... As a conversation unfolds among teenagers on an Internet message board, it rapidly becomes evident that this is not idle electronic chatter. One youngster poses a question that, to an outsider, seems shocking: "Does anyone know how to cut deep...

Amphibious ancestors: vertebrates' transition to dry land took some fancy footwork.(Tiktaalik body )(Cover story)
June 17, 2006... Imagine a scale-covered fish that uses fleshy limbs that end in fins to haul itself out of the water. Its mosaic of body features also includes sturdy ribs, the first vertebrate neck, and both gills and lungs. Paleontologists recently unearthed...

Spewing superdust.(ASTRONOMY)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... Astronomers have identified a type of supernova as the main source of space dust, one of the building blocks of stars and planets. A core-collapse supernova--the most common type of exploding star--is triggered when a massive star can no...

Gasp! Ozone limits don't protect babies.(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... In healthy infants, even ozone concentrations well below those allowed by federal law trigger asthmalike symptoms, a new study shows. The finding indicates that federal limits on this pervasive pollutant, a prime constituent of smog, don't...

Sharp rise noted in meds for youths.(BEHAVIOR)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... Antipsychotic-drug treatment of children and teenagers seen by office-based physicians increased dramatically between 1993 and 2002, according to a national study. In the United States, the number of office prescriptions of antipsychotic...

Variety spices up Neandertals' DNA.(GENETICS)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... A surprising amount of genetic diversity characterized Neandertals, the Stone Age species with a disputed place in human evolution, a research team reports. The new finding stems from a small piece of DNA recovered from a 100,000-year-old...

Not a planet?(ASTRONOMY)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... Two years ago, European astronomers found what they hailed as the first image of an extrasolar planet. New observations of the object add to evidence that it's not a planet after all. The body, about eight times as heavy as Jupiter, resides...

Inactivity, not altitude, is probably behind blood clots.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... Low cabin pressure isn't to blame for the rare but dangerous blood clots that some passengers get during long flights, new evidence suggests. The likely explanation for the phenomenon, sometimes called economy-class syndrome, is that long...

Subglacial lakes may not be isolated ecosystems.(EARTH SCIENCE)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... Large volumes of water occasionally flow between the lakes that lie deep beneath Antarctica's kilometers-thick ice sheet, a new analysis suggests. In late 1996, radar altimeters on a European Space Agency satellite began to measure a drop...

Meetings.(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... American Geophysical Union Baltimore, Md. May 23-26

Cleaning up pollution, whey down deep.(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
June 17, 2006... Lab and field tests hint that dairy whey, a lactose-rich by-product of the dairy industry, could be used to clean up underground water supplies tainted with the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial degreaser. Consuming TCE or...

Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time along the Prime Meridian.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 17, 2006... WALKING ZERO: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time along the Prime Meridian CHET RAYMO In 1884, the marking of the prime meridian--that invisible north-south line through Greenwich, England, that universalized time throughout the world--also...

The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why during Hurricane Katrina--The Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 17, 2006... THE STORM: What Went Wrong and Why during Hurricane Katrina--The Inside story from One Louisiana Scientist IVOR VAN HEERDEN AND MIKE BRYAN On Aug. 29, 2005, New Orleans officials believed that they had dodged a bullet. Hurricane Katrina,...

Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 17, 2006... PETE DUNNE'S ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE COMPANION: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds PETE DUNNE Packed with details to aid in the identification of hundreds of North American birds, this book is not a field guide per...

Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 17, 2006... RICHARD DAWKINS: HOW a Scientist Changed the Way We Think ALAN GRAFEN AND MARK RIDLEY, EDS. In 1976, Richard Dawkins, an Oxford biologist, published the landmark book The Selfish Gene. In it, he proposed a novel way of looking at...

Cuts on the bias.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 17, 2006... After taking some of the bias tests, I am very skeptical ("The Bias Finders: A test of unconscious attitudes polarizes psychologists," SN: 4/22/06, p. 250). Since the major tool is speed of reaction, and since my eyes are not too good now, the...

Magnetic thrust: fields force matter into black holes.(This Week)
June 24, 2006... Like a child scared to dive into a pool, cosmic matter needs one last push to plunge into a black hole. New observations confirm that magnetic fields provide this final galactic shove. The observations come from a system in the Milky Way...

Proof of protection: condoms limit infection by cervical cancer virus.(This Week)
June 24, 2006... Using a condom during sexual intercourse significantly reduces a woman's risk of being infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) and lessens her chance of developing precancerous growths on the cervix, a new study finds. While condoms...

Fishy reputations: undersea watchers choose helpers that do good jobs.(This Week)
June 24, 2006... Coral reef fish do consumer research in a way that keeps a service-providing species honest, says a new study. When parasites build up on the skin of a reef fish, it can get relief by swimming over to a small, so-called cleaner fish that...

A chronicle of coasts: study charts historical changes in seas, estuaries.(This Week)
June 24, 2006... Human exploitation of marine species and destruction of habitat have been spoiling coastal ecosystems since the birth of the Roman republic. By comparing historical changes in 12 bodies of water worldwide, a new study highlights the extent to...

Older but mellower: aging brain shifts gears to emotional advantage.(This Week)
June 24, 2006... Given all the bad news that science has delivered about brain cells withering and memory waning as the years mount, older people have a right to be cranky. But, instead, the over-50 crowd handles life's rotten realities and finds life's bright...

Toxic leftovers: microbes convert flame retardant.(This Week)
June 24, 2006... Bacteria can break down a common flame retardant into more-toxic forms, researchers report. Besides finding more degradation products than earlier work had, the new study is the first to identify specific bacterial strains capable of the feat,...

Sticky subjects: insights into ancient spider diet, kinship.(This Week)
June 24, 2006... Remnants of a spider web embedded in ancient amber suggest that some spiders' diets haven't changed much in millions of years. Separate research indicates that some groups of modern spiders that spin webs in the same pattern didn't stumble upon...

Nurture takes the spotlight: decoding the environment's role in development and disease.
June 24, 2006... Identical twin sisters Elizabeth and Eleanor (not their real names) say that when they entered the world on November 19, 1939--Elizabeth first, then Eleanor 8 minutes later--their mother was rather shocked. She'd been expecting just one baby,...

Naked and not: two species of mole rats run complex societies underground.
June 24, 2006... On his first trip into Namibia, Chris Faulkes woke up in his tent with a peculiar kink in his back. The ground beneath him had been flat enough when he went to sleep. Yet the next morning, "there was a whopping great lump," he says. A mound of...

Main source of airborne pollen varies by month.(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
June 24, 2006... People with seasonal allergies know that some months can be tougher than others. An unprecedented 15-year study conducted in the New York City area charts how air concentrations of different types of pollen vary throughout an average year. ...

Herbal therapy for beleaguered lawns.(BOTANY)(mustard seed and poinsettia shoots control sting nematodes)(Brief article)
June 24, 2006... Many people don't like the biting taste of mustard. Neither, it turns out, do sting nematodes--small, parasitic roundworms that siphon food from plant roots. That finding could prove good news for mainstaining golf courses, sports fields, and...

Something's fishy about these hormones.(ENVIRONMENT)(ananbolic steroids used on cattle affect female fathead minnows in streams)(Brief article)
June 24, 2006... To beef up animals quickly, most U.S. cattle ranchers treat their livestock with growth-promoting hormones. Among the more widely used drugs is trenbolone acetate (SN: 1/5/02, p. 10), a synthetic anabolic steroid. In April, Environmental...