Science News articles from June 2007

Science News archives from June 2007

Ice age ends smashingly: did a comet blow up over eastern Canada?(This Week)
June 2, 2007... Evidence unearthed at more than two dozen sites across North America suggests that an extraterrestrial object exploded in Earth's atmosphere above Canada about 12,900 years ago, just as the climate was warming at the end of the last ice age....

Early start: fetuses generate immune response to vaccination.(This Week)
June 2, 2007... A fetus can manufacture immune cells and antibodies in direct response to vaccine given to the mother during pregnancy, according to researchers studying flu shots. Scientists had already established that a pregnant woman can pass along...

Pothole pals: ants pave roads for fellow raiders.(This Week)
June 2, 2007... When army ants use their own bodies to plug tiny potholes in rough trails, the whole colony benefits, a new study has found. Without those instant road repairs, a colony's daily catch of food can drop by as much as 30 percent, say Scott...

Visualizing cancer: images of tumors can detect gene expression.(This Week)
June 2, 2007... Radiologists have found a way to use X-ray scans to identify which genes in a tumor are active. The ability to glean genetic information about tumors from routine medical imagery could increase the use of cancer therapies that target a...

Packaging peril: chemicals in food wrapping turn toxic.(This Week)
June 2, 2007... Chemicals that prevent grease from seeping through food packaging transform in rats into a suspected carcinogenic compound. This conversion could help explain why that compound--perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)--shows up so widely in people's...

Take a number: kids show math insights without instruction.(This Week)
June 2, 2007... Most children need years to master the basics of adding and multiplying single-digit numbers. Yet by the time they enter kindergarten, a new study finds, kids can solve addition and subtraction problems involving large numbers if they are...

Magnetic logic: electron spins could do cool calculations.(This Week)
June 2, 2007... Engineers have proposed a new design for circuits that could process information by using electrons as tiny bar magnets. Such circuits could someday become the building blocks of a new generation of computers. Computer-chip components...

Powering the revolution: tiny gadgets pick up energy for free.
June 2, 2007... A few years ago, just to show that they could do it, Paul Wright and his mechanical engineering students mounted a temperature sensor under a staircase at the University of California, Berkeley and fed its readings into the stairwell's...

Slime dwellers: a blanket seeded with microbes appears critical to coral health.
June 2, 2007... Put on your snorkel gear and get close to coral-really close--and you can spy a thin layer of surface slime. Produced continually, and often in prodigious amounts, this mucus can be anything from a thick, soupy liquid to gummy gel. Corals...

Stem cells not required.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
June 2, 2007... The pancreas doesn't include stem cells that become insulin producers. Instead, the cells that make the hormone proliferate by dividing, researchers have discovered. The finding could have implications for future diabetes treatments. Many...

Powering enceladus' plumes.(PLANETARY SCIENCE)(plumes in one of Saturn's moons)(Brief article)
June 2, 2007... Astronomers in 2005 were astonished to find that Saturn's tiny, chilly moon Enceladus expels giant plumes of water vapor from an array of cracks marking its southern hemisphere. Because Enceladus is so small, researchers reasoned that it ought...

Carbon's mysterious magnetism.(PHYSICS)(Brief article)
June 2, 2007... An X-ray experiment has produced the most conclusive evidence yet that carbon can be made into a permanent magnet. Only a few elements are magnetic at room temperature. They are metals whose atoms have a magnetic moment arising from the...

Using seismometers to monitor glaciers.(EARTH SCIENCE)(Brief article)
June 2, 2007... Seismic instruments could be used to estimate the amount of ice that shears away from glaciers as they flow into the sea, offering a way to better estimate sea level rise due to the breakup of those ice masses. In 2004 and 2005, Shad...

Ivorybill Hunters: The Search for Proof in a Flooded Wilderness.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 2, 2007... IVORYBILL HUNTERS: The search for Proof in a Flooded Wilderness GEOFFREY E. HILL At the start of this century, most naturalists thought the ivory-billed woodpecker had been hunted to extinction. In 2005, a team from the famed ornithology...

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 2, 2007... THE WILD TREES: A Story of Passion and Daring RICHARD PRESTON Redwood trees are the largest living things on Earth, with trunk diameters that run up to 10 meters and heights of up to 30 stories. Preston, author of the thriller The Hot Zone...

Why the Sky Is Blue: Discovering the Color of Life.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 2, 2007... WHY THE SKY IS BLUE: DiScovering the Color of Lifo GOTZ HOEPPE In a revised translation of the German edition of his book, science writer and editor Hoeppe explores the answer to one of humanity's--at least its younger members'--most...

The Sun Kings: the Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 2, 2007... THE SUN KINGS: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of HOW Modern Astronomy Began STUART CLARK In 2003, Earth was hit with a barrage of particles of supercharged radiation from a series of massive solar flares, and some...

The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 2, 2007... THE CANON: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science NATALIE ANGIER On the whole, people in the United States are low in science literacy and uncomfortable with the type of analytical reasoning that's behind science, Angler...

Where there's fire.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 2, 2007... Regarding "Risky Flames: Firefighter coronaries spike during blazes" (SN: 3/24/07, p. 180), was the increased death rate due to firefighters having a higher rate of heart disease than people do in other jobs? An analysis of eating habits may...

Sore gripes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 2, 2007... The study on canker sores ("Patches take sting out of canker sores," SN: 4/7/07, p. 222) compared an "untreated" group with a group using licorice patches. A more valid comparison would be for the control group to be treated with patches that...

Not so fast.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 2, 2007... "Asian Trek: Fossil puts ancient humans in Far East" (SN: 4/7/07, p. 211) "underscores the vast distances" humans moved from Africa to northern China in 20,000 years. However, if one stops to consider the time frames, it's extremely...

Pick your poison.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 2, 2007... The fact that more people are overdosing on niacin to cover up relatively benign marijuana use ("Not-So-Artful Dodgers: Countering drug tests with niacin proves dangerous," SN: 4/7/07, p. 212) exemplifies what's wrong with the failed "War on...

Correction.(LETTERS)(Correction notice)
June 2, 2007... For want of a comma, "Wanted: Better Yardsticks" (SN: 4/21/07, p. 251) incorrectly indicated that "Trays have a frequency that's a trillion cycles per second higher than that of standard microwaves.... "The rays have a frequency of about a...

Guilt by association: whole-genome scans yield disease clues.(This Week)
June 9, 2007... In a sweeping demonstration of the power of the new biology, researchers have linked two dozen genetic variations to six major diseases. The study, which scanned the genomes of 16,179 British citizens, is "unprecedented in scope and scale,...

In a fix: agricultural chemicals disturb a natural relationship.(This Week)
June 9, 2007... Several pesticides can disrupt a partnership that enables certain plants to take up nitrogen by enlisting the help of bacteria, As well as stunting the growth of those plants, the newfound effect maybe decreasing soil fertility, the researchers...

Chicken of the sea: poultry may have reached Americas via Polynesia.(This Week)
June 9, 2007... Thor Heyerdahl got it backwards. More than 40 years ago, the late explorer proposed that the Inca or their predecessors voyaged from South America to Polynesia by raft. On the contrary, a new study indicates that Polynesian seafarers reached...

Blending in: dissolvable stents promise to protect arteries.(This Week)(biodegradable magnesium alloy stent)
June 9, 2007... Biodegradable versions of the metal cylinders known as stents can keep blocked coronary arteries propped open long enough to free up blood flow, after which they disappear--a potential advantage. The new finding suggests that such dissolving...

Nanotech bubbles.(This Week)
June 9, 2007... Creating large-scale, regular arrays of nanoscale components is now almost as easy as blowing bubbles. Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber and his collaborators suspended nanocomponents in a liquid polymer and then blew bubbles from the...

Scary singing: precise birds signal, 'don't mess with us'.(This Week)
June 9, 2007... Pairs of magpie-larks that duet with split-second timing are warning that they'll really kick feathers if another bird attacks, according to new tests. Recordings of precise duets alarmed other magpie-larks more than sloppy duets did,...

Galactic emigre: incoming dwarf galaxy could feed its larger kin.(This Week)
June 9, 2007... Welcome, stranger! A dwarf galaxy that only recently entered our niche in the universe could provide a wealth of insight into how galaxies form and evolve, a new study suggests. The properties of the newfound dwarf provide the best direct...

Storm norms: Caribbean corals and sediments yield clues to hurricane frequency.(This Week)
June 9, 2007... The recent spike in hurricane activity in the North Atlantic--a trend that some scientists blame on climate change--actually reflects a return to normal frequency after a lull in the 1970s and 1980s, a new analysis confirms. Between 1995...

Big broadcast: solar radio bursts put a new wrinkle in space weather.
June 9, 2007... When twisted magnetic fields on the sun snap and unleash their energy, it's the most ostentatious fireworks that grab the headlines. Brilliant explosions in the sun's outer atmosphere can send billion-ton clouds of charged particles speeding...

Past impressions: prior relationships cast a long shadow over our social lives.
June 9, 2007... In a 1948 book, psychoanalyst Theodore Reik described an extraordinary "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"-type identity change that he underwent in the minds of many patients during therapy sessions. At the start of each encounter, Reik wrote, patients...

Guidelines for wind farms.(ENERGY)(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... The federal government should devise national policies to maximize the benefits of wind farms while lessening their environmental impact, concludes a report from the National Research Council. Such policies would provide much-needed guidance...

Crash will determine solar system's fate.(ASTRONOMY)(Milky Way and Andromeda to collide)(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... Ready for a change of scene? The solar system already lies in the suburbs of the Milky Way, but the sun and its planets will be yanked even farther away--to the galactic equivalent of Siberia--about 5 billion years from now, according to...

Sticky treatment for staph infections.(ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE)(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... Honey made by bees pollinating a New Zealand bush can gum up bacteria, offering a potential new therapy for difficult-to-treat infections. A scourge of hospitals, the pathogen called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus defies most...

Phages break up plaques.(ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE)(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... Phages, which are viruses that infect bacteria, cut through plaques in the brains of mice engineered to develop a disease similar to Alzheimer's. That action helped the rodents recover. "Phages dissolve plaque," says Beka Solomon of Tel...

Animal-to-human diseases could be right at home.(DISEASE SURVEILLANCE)(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... A new map depicting where severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or Ebola might erupt next highlights North America and Western Europe as likely locations. Developed by Peter Daszak of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine in New York...

Beware the bats.(VIROLOGY)(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... Fruit bats in Bangladesh regularly trigger small outbreaks of Nipah virus, a pathogen that often causes measles-like symptoms and sometimes leads to brain inflammation and death, say researchers. For 6 straight years, Andrew Dobson of...

Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 9, 2007... MIND IN LIFE: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind EVAN THOMPSON Scientists and philosophers have long pondered the nature of the mind. Thompson, a professor of philosophy, provides an overview of research on the topic. He...

The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics behind the Great Detective's Greatest Cases.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 9, 2007... THE SCIENCE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics behind the Great Detective's Greatest Cases E.J. WAGNER Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created one of literature's most legendary characters, the...

The Happiness Trip: A Scientific Journey.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 9, 2007... THE HAPPINESS TRIP: A Scientific Journey EDUARDO PUNSET Researchers have recently turned their sights to identifying the origins of human happiness, Punset writes. What are the internal and external sources of happiness in people? And why,...

Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 9, 2007... DARK SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos IAIN NICOLSON Far from being full of stars, dust, and planets, the universe seems to be full of nothing. In fact, 98 percent of the universe is made up of...

The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight against AIDS.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 9, 2007... THE INVISIBLE CURE: Africa, the West, and the Fight against AIDS HELEN EPSTEIN Nowhere on Earth has the toll of AIDS been more devastating than in East Africa. In 2005, about 40 percent of the world's HIV-infected population lived in 11...

Safe passage.(Letter to the editor)
June 9, 2007... I have to ask you to remove the subtitle "Dangerous Bridge" under the photograph of the exit ramp from the New Jamarat Bridge in Saudi Arabia ("Formula for Panic: Crowd-motion findings may prevent stampedes," SN: 4/7/07, p. 213). There has...

Mars evasion?(Letter to the editor)
June 9, 2007... I find it interesting that even the scientists studying Mars can't accept that our local star can have a major impact on climate ("No Escape! There's global warming on Mars too" SN: 4/7/07, p. 214). I am still waiting for the...

Big and birdlike: Chinese dinosaur was 3.5 meters tall.(This Week)
June 16, 2007... Paleontologists have unearthed the remains of an immense, fast-growing dinosaur whose body proportions don't match those predicted by the evolutionary trends that characterize its more diminutive kin. The creature, one of a group of...

Breast cancer lead: overactive gene is linked to disease.(This Week)(I-kappa-B kinase epsilon)
June 16, 2007... Researchers have discovered a new breast cancer gene that's overly active in 30 to 40 percent of women with the disease. The high percentage makes the malfunctioning of this gene, called I-kappa-B kinase epsilon (IKBKE), one of the most...

Easy there, bro: a plant can spot and favor close kin.(This Week)
June 16, 2007... A little beach plant can recognize other plants that grew from its own mother's seeds, according to experiments on root growth. Sibling sea rocket plants don't compete with each other as fiercely as unrelated plants do, reports Susan A....

Improbability drive: focus on rare actions speeds chemical simulations.(This Week)
June 16, 2007... In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the book by Douglas Adams, a machine made interstellar travel possible by nudging nature toward extremely improbable, but not impossible, events. A new computer-simulation technique promises to calculate...

Vaccine harvest: cholera fighter could be easy to swallow.(This Week)
June 16, 2007... By genetically modifying rice plants, scientists have created an edible vaccine that triggers an immune reaction capable of neutralizing cholera toxin, tests in mice show. But the researchers stress that the altered rice wouldn't be sold in...

Shifting ocean: tipsy Mars may explain undulating shoreline.(This Week)
June 16, 2007... By proposing that the Red Planet was tipped halfway over on its side several billion years ago, astronomers this week provide a new perspective on--and new support for--the long-standing notion that Mars once held a vast ocean. ...

Borderline aid: psychotherapy soothes personality ailment.(This Week)
June 16, 2007... Borderline personality disorder, a psychiatric condition marked by volatile relationships and stormy emotions, has the reputation of being tough to treat. A new study, however, indicates that any of three types of psychotherapy stimulates...

Brain gain: constant sprouting of neurons attracts scientists, drugmakers.(Cover story)
June 16, 2007... In the late 1990s, Fred Gage wanted to find a way to see if people, like birds and rodents, continue to produce new brain cells throughout life--a controversial idea at the time. Hearing that Swedish oncologists were injecting cancer patients...

Wildfire, walleyes and wine: latest predictions for life in North America's changing climate.
June 16, 2007... Considering how much trouble two people have deciding what movie to see, the most remarkable thing about a new set of global-climate predictions may be that it exists at all. More than one hundred nations belong to the Intergovernmental Panel...

Mental letdown for antipsychotic meds.(BEHAVIOR)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... Antipsychotic medications spur surprisingly little improvement in the mental prowess of people with chronic schizophrenia, a national investigation finds. Patients who were prescribed any of several new antipsychotic drugs, often touted as...

Nutrients linked to brain lesions.(FOOD & NUTRITION)(calcium and vitamin D )(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... Physicians, nutritionists, and health magazines advocate increased consumption of calcium and vitamin D. Together, the nutrients build strong bones, while vitamin D offers a bevy of benefits on its own--from fighting cancer to improving...

Right combination of malaria drugs?(BIOMEDICINE)(Artemisinin prepared from wormwood shrub works better for malaria)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... Children in Uganda recover from malaria faster when taking an herb-based combination therapy than when given standard drugs, solidifying the herbal drugs as frontline treatments for malaria in Africa. Artemisinin is made from the leaves of...

Age and gender affect soot's toxic impact.(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... From second to second, blood vessels must alternately constrict and dilate to regulate blood flow. That ability can diminish markedly in rodent vessels exposed to an oily constituent of diesel soot, researchers report. The team took...

Dust Bowl affected midwestern climate.(CLIMATE)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... During the 1930s, immense clouds of dust wafting over the Great Plains blocked so much sunlight that temperatures there were significantly lower than normal during summer months, a new analysis suggests. From 1930 to 1938, an extended...

Darker days during Arctic summer.(EARTH SCIENCE)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... Satellite observations of Earth indicate that Arctic regions reflected less sunlight into space in the summer of 2006 than in other recent years. That change could contribute to the warming of Earth's climate. Sensors on board NASA's Terra...

How sea turtle hatchlings know where to crawl.(BIOLOGY)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... Field tests suggest that newly hatched sea turtles need a variety of senses, not just sight, to find their way to the ocean. The female black sea turtle (Chelonia agassizi) buries her eggs in sand 100 meters or so from the shoreline. As...

Trouble for forests of the northern U.S. Rockies?(CLIMATE)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... Climate change expected to occur in the coming decades may cause forests in northern stretches of the U.S. Rockies to stop absorbing carbon dioxide and even to release some to the atmosphere, exacerbating the planet's warming. Trees pull...

The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 16, 2007... THE SILENT DEEP: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea TONY KOSLOW The deep ocean was once thought to be a lifeless abyss, Within the past 50 years, however, improved exploration techniques have revealed, at depths below...

Guanxi (The Art of Relationships).(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 16, 2007... GUANXI (The Art of Relationships) ROBERT BUDERI AND GREGORY T. HUANG As U.S. companies feel more and more competitive pressure from enterprises in countries such as China and India, many people worry about the U.S. economy. However,...

The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 16, 2007... THE BIRDS OF COSTA RICA: A Field Guide RICHARD GARRIGUES AND ROBERT DEAN For the nature lover fortunate enough to vacation in Costa Rica--and for all lovers of beautiful birds--comes this up-to-date, comprehensive field guide to more than...

F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the Twentieth Century.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 16, 2007... F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the Twentieth Century. MARK LEVINE On April 3, 1974, nature unleashed a storm of epic proportions that spawned, within a 16-hour period, 148 tornadoes from Michigan to...

The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 16, 2007... THE RICHNESS OF LIFE: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould STEVEN ROSE, ED. The late scientist and Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould became a household name through the wit and intelligence of his science writing. In this book, Rose has...

Bigger picture.(Letter to the editor)
June 16, 2007... Reading "Pictures Posing Questions: The next steps in photography could blur reality" (SN: 4/7/07, p. 216), I was struck by the similarity between the image that used a cone-shaped mirror and the images you get from gravitational lensing. As...

Old news.(Letter to the editor)
June 16, 2007... The existence of ancient proteins is no surprise. Evidence of remnants of durable, skeleton-associated proteins such as collagen are not uncommon in the fossil record long before Tyrannosaurus rex ("Ancient Extract: T. rex fossil yields...

House of cars.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 16, 2007... I was interested to read that running portable generators caused carbon monoxide poisoning, presumably by improper fuel burning ("Even outdoors, generators pose risks, SN: 4/14/07, p. 237). A good solution to this problem is to use a generator...

Not measuring up.(Letter to the editor)
June 16, 2007... The title of "Wanted: Better Yardsticks" (SN: 4/21/07, p. 251) exemplifies the problem. Bylaw, the official and preferred system of measurement for all U.S. activities is SI, or the modern metric system. We too often forget that a gram of...

Crossing the line: technique could treat brain diseases.(This Week)(new treatments for a wide range of brain disorders)
June 23, 2007... For the first time, scientists have selectively ferried a drug across the blood-brain barrier to treat a neurological disease in mice. The new method could eventually make new treatments possible for a wide range of brain disorders, such as...

Mapping a medusa: the internet spreads its tentacles.(This Week)
June 23, 2007... After enlisting the help of thousands of volunteers to track how digital information weaves around the world, researchers can offer a new simile: The Internet is like a medusa jellyfish. It has a dense core surrounded by a highly connected...

Warning sign: river blindness parasite shows resistance.(This Week)(onchocerciasis)
June 23, 2007... The worm that causes river blindness appears to be developing resistance to the sole drug that's effective against it, a study in West Africa shows. The finding is bad news in the fight against this parasite, Onchocerca volvulus, which infects...

Needling cells: stem cells could take their cues from silicon nanowires.(This Week)(myocardium)
June 23, 2007... The ability to make new heart muscle from a patient's own stem cells is a dream for many cardiologists. By growing stem cells on a bed of silicon needles, researchers may have found a way to give the cells a push in the right direction. ...

Winged dragon.(This Week)(Mecistotrachelos apeoros)(Brief article)
June 23, 2007... A quarry on the Virginia--North Carolina border has yielded fossils of an unusual, gliding reptile that lived in the region about 220 million years ago. Depicted here, Mecistotrachelos apeoros, which in Greek means "soaring and long necked,"...

Beyond ethanol: synthetic fuel offers promising alternative.(This Week)(2,5-dimethylfuran)
June 23, 2007... DMF may not yet be a household name, but thanks to newly improved production processes, this biofuel may some day prove even better than ethanol as a sustainable alternative to gasoline. Plant-derived biofuels such as ethanol offer...

Jurassic CSI: fossils indicate central nervous system damage.(This Week)(Crime Scene Investigator)
June 23, 2007... Many animal fossils appear in a head-thrown-back position called the "dead-bird" pose, which paleontologists traditionally attribute to rigor mortis, desiccation of the carcass, or the shifting of bones by water currents. Now, scientists report...

Profiles in courtship: flirting male fish show their best sides.(This Week)(sexual behavior of male guppies)
June 23, 2007... Male guppies sporting a tad more orange on one side of their bodies than on the other tend to flash that better side at females. That's the conclusion of a new study of asymmetric male guppies flirting with females in adjoining tanks, says...

Storm center: a detailed look inside the core of a hurricane.
June 23, 2007... Flying an aircraft through a hurricane is risky business, even if the plane is specially equipped for the job. In the hurricane's eye, skies are clear and calm prevails, but in the ring of intense storms surrounding the eye--the eyewall--rain...

Stents stumble: enthusiasm wanes for drug-coated artery tubes.
June 23, 2007... At a cardiology meeting in Stockholm 6 years ago, attendees witnessed what seemed to be the birth of a new era in treating heart disease. In the first large study of drug-coated stents--tiny mesh tubes that prop open clogged arteries--all the...

Diabetes drug might hike heart risk.(BIOMEDICINE)(rosiglitazone or Avandia)(Brief article)
June 23, 2007... A popular prescription drug for type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes increases a person's risk of heart attack, an analysis of 42 clinical trials suggests. The drug, called rosiglitazone or Avandia, is taken to lower blood sugar. The Food and...

Ancient beads found in northern Africa.(ARCHAEOLOGY)(Brief article)
June 23, 2007... Excavations in eastern Morocco have yielded 13 perforated, pigment-stained shells that were probably strung together as some type of body ornament about 82,000 years ago, according to a new report. The ancient finds, referred to as shell...