Science News articles from June 2008

Science News archives from June 2008

Pigeonholing stories on birds, bubbles, bugs.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
June 7, 2008... One of the enduring strengths of Science News is its scope. Its pages are open to all fields of science and their subspecialties, to all the realms of human inquiry into the natural (and artificial) world, whether physical, biological or...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Quotation)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I think music is part of communication. I think it is part of the way that people touch each other, and that is very precious to me. And astronomy is in a sense an opposite thing because instead of looking inwards...

Science past: 50 years ago: from Science News Letter, June 7, 1958.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... CARBON DIOXIDE CHANGES UNDIFFERENTIATED CELLS--When carbon dioxide is bubbled into a solution containing undifferentiated cells that have just begun to grow after egg fertilization, the cells become brain cells. Dr. Reed Flickinger, zoologist...

How bizarre.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... Bubbles bursting in lava lakes make characteristic sounds. By listening, scientists think they can better understand geophysical processes. But lava is hard to come by in the lab. Instead, researchers have turned to hair gel. With a little...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)(Calendar)
June 7, 2008... June 15 Baseball as America opens at the Boston Museum of Science. Visit www.mos. org/exhibits_shows/coming_ soon&d=2472 June 29-July 3 The Ninth International Conference on Permafrost at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Visit...

Mathtrek.(SN online: www.sciencenews.org)(Julie J. Rehmeyer's column)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... Find out what data structure is hidden within photographs, why topologists like to say there is no difference between a coffee cup and a doughnut and what exactly the squint method of analysis is all about in recent columns by Julie J....

Science & the public.(SN online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... Everyone knows about the Kyoto Protocol, but the nearly forgotten Montreal Protocol may have had a bigger impact on climate. Learn how this 20-year-old treaty slowed runaway global warming in Janet Raloff's May 18 post in Blogs.

Sights & sounds.(SN online: www.sciencenews.org)
June 7, 2008... Physical sciences writer Davide Castelvecchi describes how a digital X-ray holds clues to a 2,500-year-old mummy's demise. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

News.(SN online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... Read news stories and watch the accompanying video of magnetic fields that churn solar jets, or a chimp inventor discovering and improving on a new tool to catch ants. Learn what's happening in science today with breaking news stories published...

Stay connected.(SN online: www.sciencenews.org)
June 7, 2008... The Science News website offers targeted e-mail alerts and RSS feeds that send the latest news headlines out to readers.

Science stats.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Table)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... Science Stats IN THE KNOW Primary source of information about science and technology for adults in the United States Television 39% Internet 23% Newspaper 11% Magazine 10% Book/other...

Lost are found: child soldiers can reenter, thrive in former community.(STORY ONE)
June 7, 2008... Ishmael Beah knows that former child soldiers in war-ravaged African countries can reclaim their lives, because that's just what he did. In 1993, when Beah was 13, rebels in Sierra Leone killed his parents and two brothers, forcing him to join...

With a closer look, chemists find molecules switch shapes slowly: findings may challenge theory explaining vibrations.(Molecules)
June 7, 2008... Chemists can now watch the structures of molecules as they change shape, much like shooting multiple frames of a galloping horse. The new view reveals that when certain molecules switch between different conformations, they do so less often...

Antarctic ice tells tale of time with low carbon dioxide levels: core reveals temperature shifts over 800,000 years.(Earth)
June 7, 2008... A kilometers-long ice core from Antarctica has recorded climate information for the past 800,000 years and has revealed three millennia during which carbon dioxide levels in the air were lower than any previously measured. The longest...

A step back from extinction: Tasmanian tiger DNA turns on gene in mouse.(Life)
June 7, 2008... Tasmanian tigers are back. Sort of. A small bit of the extinct marsupial's DNA is alive and well in the cells of some genetically engineered mice. Researchers have produced proteins from mammoth and Neandertal genes in cells. But the new...

What a tangled protein web humans weave: complexity depends more on network of interactions than on number of genes.(Genes & Cells)
June 7, 2008... Humans don't have many more genes than fruit flies or roundworms, but the network of protein interactions in human cells is much larger and more complex, a new estimate shows. While people have fewer than 25,000 genes, the proteins encoded...

One is the healthiest number: method may identify best embryos for in vitro fertilization.(Body & Brain)
June 7, 2008... Researchers have taken fingerprinting children to the next level. A group at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, is using DNA fingerprinting and other molecular techniques to identify viable embryos created during fertility procedures....

Brain remembers how to see.(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... A study of two people who went blind while young and then partially regained sight as adults shows that blind people's brains remember how to see, essentially by allowing hearing circuits to share space with areas normally reserved for vision,...

Highs may hurt the heart.(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... Add possible increased risk of heart disease to the side effects of smoking marijuana. A study led by Jean Lud Cadet of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md., and published online in Molecular Psychiatry tested blood samples...

A special place in the universe: scientists propose tests of Copernican principle.(Atom & Cosmos)
June 7, 2008... For all the hand wringing among physicists about the nature of dark energy, the invisible stuff that appears to be revving up the rate of cosmic expansion, a nagging possibility remains. Dark energy could be a cosmic mirage--if humans live in a...

Lines in the ice suggest massive flip on Europa.(Atoms & Cosmos)(Brief article)
June 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Imagine a shift in Earth's continents so extreme that Alaska would move to the equator. Astronomers have found evidence that such a shift actually happened on Jupiter's moon Europa. The sliding of the moon's icy...

Students show their smarts at international science fair: participants compete for $4 million in prizes.(Science & Society)
June 7, 2008... More than 1,500 young scientists from 51 countries, regions and territories flexed their mental muscles in Atlanta May 12-16 at an event of Olympic proportions. Three students took home the gold. All together, $4 million in scholarships,...

Insects: the original white meat.(Cover story)
June 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You bite into a piece of candy and find a cricket leg. Eewwww. Or notice that raisin in a bowl of cereal has legs and wings. Bam, down the disposal it goes. Such filth in foods is supposedly illegal, but the Food and...

When worlds collide: parallel universes aren't supposed to be observable, but a cosmic crash might leave a visible sign of their existence.
June 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Science fiction movies and books are full of parallel universes. In a typical scenario, as in the movie Sliding Doors, something happens in one Universe--like a woman misses a train--but in a parallel universe,...

How they shine: iridescence could be pretty meaningful--or maybe just pretty.
June 7, 2008... Believe it or not, science has barely begun to fathom the peacock's tail. Subtle as a pink tuxedo, one might think. Big flashy thing. Peahens love it. What's not to understand. Roslyn Dakin, though, has plenty of questions. There's the...

A little gravity.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... "Britain's biggest meteorite strike" (SN: 4/12/08, p. 238) states that "gravitational anomalies" make an offshore area a prime candidate as the possible impact site of a meteorite. Wouldn't that be magnetic anomalies instead? If it is a...

Good food for thought.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... I really enjoyed the article "What's Cookin'" on molecular gastronomy (SN: 3/29/08, p. 202). I am a chowhound and cook, so there was honestly little in the article that I didn't already know, but it was a very well written, concise and...

Worst of both.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... Regarding "Shifting priorities at the wheel" (SN: 5/10/08,p. 7): For a number of years I have listened to (tried to listen to) lectures on CDs while driving. I quickly discovered that I would have to backtrack a CD when I was in a situation...

Another gas-fill.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... We still cling to that very human invention, the dump, this time for carbon dioxide. Every solution discussed in "Down with Carbon" (SN: 5/10/08, p. 18) is a sequestration, a deep-sixing or other burial in an open-loop dump. Glaringly absent...

Tangled web.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... The new Science News format is delightful, but please don't attempt to extend the reformatting to biological taxonomy. "Spiders boost mercury levels" (SN 5/10/08, p. 14) discusses "spiders and other insects living near a mercury-contaminated...

What gull.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... You can add seagulls to the list of thieving birds ("Hatch a Thief: Brains incline birds toward life of crime," SN: 12/15/07, p. 372)--unless you already have. My grandson was the victim of seagull thievery at the San Diego Zoo, where seagulls...

Cheers.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... "Hairy Forensics" (SN: 3/1/08, p. 131) describes finding a person's origin and movements using isotopic signatures in peoples' hair, which match those in the water people consume, which mainly comes from near where people live. While an...

More comments on the new Science News.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 7, 2008... I use Science News in my high school every week. We put the magazine out in the media center and the kids are avid readers. Problem: The advertising in this first edition of the new format (SN: 5/10/08) makes the magazine useless in education....

Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 7, 2008... Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius Silvan S. Schweber [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In mid-20th century America, two scientists towered over all others in the public mind: Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer...

Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 7, 2008... Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery Jim Motavalli [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last summer, the Discovery Channel temporarily suspended airing its hit survivalist show Man vs. Wild. The producer admitted...

Human Origins: What Bones and Genomes Tell Us about Ourselves.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 7, 2008... Human Origins: What Bones and Genomes Tell Us about Ourselves Rob DeSalle and Inn Tattersall [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A guided tour of our prehistory and how we understand it. Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2008, 216 p., $29.95.

Global Fever: How to Treat Climate Change.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 7, 2008... Global Fever: How to Treat Climate Change William H. Calvin [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An opening image of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" will have you flipping quickly to "Turning Around by 2020." Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008, 337...

Guilty Robots, Happy Dogs: The Question of Alien Minds.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 7, 2008... Guilty Robots, Happy Dogs: The Question of Alien Minds David McFarland [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The alien minds are of animals. The question: Can robots mimic them? Oxford Univ. Press, 2008, 252 p., $34.95.

Finding Home.(SN BOOKSHELF)
June 7, 2008... Finding Home Sandra Markle and Alan Marks For young readers, the story of a koala who survived a brush fire. Charlesbridge, 2008, 16 p., $15.95.

Trees, Truffles, and Beasts: How Forests Function.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 7, 2008... Trees, Truffles, and Beasts: How Forests Function Chris Maser, Andrew W. Claridge and James M. Trappe [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An argument that simple policies will not save complex forests. Rutgers Univ. Press, 2008, 280 p.,...

U.S. science policy needs to heed global realities.(COMMENT)
June 7, 2008... I have just returned from Singapore and Shanghai, where I visited life science research sites at universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and Singapore's Biopolis. These institutions, and the government support behind them, invite...

Scrutinizing science behind the scenes.(FROM THE EDITOR)
June 21, 2008... Every issue, Science News delivers reports from the front lines of science--the latest findings from scientific journals, accounts of presentations at conferences, descriptions of events such as the Phoenix Lander's arrival on Mars. But...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... It is now clear that we were naive to think there would be a straight path from the discovery and characterization of HIV to the development of a vaccine.... We must solve the mystery of how to prompt the human body to produce a protective...

Science past: 50 years ago.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... From Science News Letter, June 21, 1958 NEW SHOCK TREATMENT--Neither electric stimulation nor convulsion may be necessary components in the electroshock treatment of certain types of mental illness.... A group of 97 mental patients... were...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Brief article)(Calendar)
June 21, 2008... June 30-July 3 The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Visit www. summerscience.org.uk/08/ July 6-10 Growers and researchers gather in Romania, for the European Association for Potato Research's four-day congress. Visit...

The (-est).(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(blue whale exhumation)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... In Prince Edward Island, scientists have begun what may be the largest ever exhumation of a single creature. A blue whale was buried whole there nearly 21 years ago after washing ashore. Blue whales are the biggest creatures on Earth, and this...

Science & the public.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... Researchers at Columbia University are turning the idea of agriculture on its side--literally--by imagining farms in the city. Learn about their plans and what they hope to accomplish in Janet Raloff's blog posts.

Mathtrek.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... In Julie J. Rehmeyer's column, find out how a radical approach to modeling networks can help scientists understand relationships in food webs and terrorist cells, and even predict connections that scientists didn't know existed.

News.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... Daily stories explore everything from the bizarre--caterpillars attacked by parasitic wasps end up serving as zombie bodyguards to the wasp larvae--to the historic, such as the recent arrival on the Red Planet of the Phoenix Mars Lander. ...

SN bookshelf.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)
June 21, 2008... Browse recent book reviews on topics ranging from the quest for long life to the physicists behind the atomic bomb on the Science News website.

Digital edition.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... Subscribers can get a sneak peek at the next issue of Science News before it hits mailboxes. Click on Digital Edition under the cover photo on the website.

A century later, scientists still study Tunguska: asteroid or comet blamed for Siberian blast of 1908.(STORY ONE)
June 21, 2008... Early on the morning of June 30, 1908, a massive explosion shook central Siberia. Witnesses told of a fireball that streaked in from the southeast and then detonated in the sky above the desolate, forested region. At the nearest trading post,...

Microbes thrive in seafloor rock: diversity and abundance surprise research teams.(Life)
June 21, 2008... As much as 70 percent of the microbes alive on Earth reside on and below the ocean floor, two new studies suggest. The seafloor was once thought to be a barren expanse of muck dotted with an occasional thriving ecosystem near a hydrothermal...

These wings were made for walking.(Life)(pterosaurs)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... Most fossils of pterosaurs, flying reptiles that soared the skies while dinosaurs strolled below, have been found in marine sediments. Scientists thought the creatures spent a lot of time flying over the seas, possibly snatching fish from the...

Lead exposure leaves its mark: metal affects brain size, risk of violent behavior.(Body & Brain)
June 21, 2008... The effects of lead weigh heavy on the minds of people exposed to the metal during childhood. Two new studies of adults who lived in lead-contaminated housing as kids find that higher lead levels in the blood during childhood are associated...

Monkeys move arm with mind: technology may eventually lead to improved prostheses.(Body & Brain)
June 21, 2008... If these monkeys were 1970s TV stars, they would play crime-fighting cyborgs in The Six Million Dollar Monkeys. Macaque monkeys with electrodes implanted in their brains learned to control a robotic arm with their thoughts, researchers...

Young keep the old young.(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... On a visit to China, Chun-Fang Wu, a fruit fly researcher at the University of Iowa, observed extended families and noticed how vibrant elderly people living with younger relatives seemed. He wondered if living in a mixed-age setting would make...

Childhood obesity levels.(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... The nonstop rise in U.S. childhood obesity that began more than two decades ago is showing the first signs of slackening, a new study finds. But it also confirms the unsettling reality that one-third of U.S. children remain overweight or obese...

The Phoenix has landed: safe on Mars, craft seeks signs of subsurface ice.(Atom & Cosmos)(Phoenix Mars Lander )
June 21, 2008... After a nerve-wracking but carefully choreographed seven-minute descent, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the Red Planet at 7:38 p.m. EDT on May 25. The first spacecraft to land on the northern polar region of Mars, the craft's...

Astronomers remap Milky Way: two spiral arms not so bright, new observations show.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ST. LOUIS--Astronomers are in the midst of a Milky Way makeover. New images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope revise the standard view that four major star-forming arms spiral around the disk-shaped Milky Way....

Sizing up black holes.(MEETING NOTES)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... Astronomers are all wound up over a new method for sizing up supermassive black holes found at the cores of galaxies. The method allows researchers for the first time to estimate the weight of these black holes in spiral galaxies up to 8...

Small world phenomenon.(MEETING NOTES)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... Astronomers have discovered the smallest known planet orbiting a star or brown dwarf beyond the solar system. The planet, three times the Earth's mass, orbits at a distance similar to that of Venus' from the sun, but is probably colder than...

New math traces human roots: Americas may have been populated in two waves.(Humans)
June 21, 2008... The Americas may have been initially settled in separate migrations, a new method for tracing human ancestry reveals. The report supports most previous findings, including the "Out of Africa" hypothesis that all humans share common...

Skullduggery worthy of a film: famous crystal skulls shown to be counterfeits.(Humans)
June 21, 2008... Welcome to this summer's scientific blockbuster, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullduggery. In his latest cinematic adventure, the bullwhip-cracking Jones chases down an ancient skull carved out of crystal that contains...

Ancient site was devoted to death: Stonehenge may have been cemetery for rulers.(Humans)
June 21, 2008... Stonehenge, a set of earth, timber and stone structures perched provocatively on England's Salisbury Plain, has long invited lively speculation about its origin and purpose. There was nothing lively about Stonehenge in its heyday, though....

Butting out.(Humans)(Brief article)
June 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Decisions to quit smoking are often made by groups of people connected to each other at up to three degrees of separation, say Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of the University * of...

Small, but super: these 'atoms' can't leap tall buildings in a single bound, but they have special powers.(Cover story)
June 21, 2008... Gold comes in many colors. Since ancient times, glass artists and alchemists alike have known how to grind the metal into fine particles that would take on hues such as red or mauve. At scales even smaller, clusters of just a few dozen atoms...

Nabbing suspicious SNPS: scientists search the whole genome for clues to common diseases.(single nucleotide polymorphisms)
June 21, 2008... Old-fashioned gene hunting wasn't terribly efficient. Geneticists typically pursued one gene at a time, armed only with guesses--usually wrong--about which chunks of genetic code might be linked to human disease. Geneticists managed to bag...

Thanks for the future memories: to the brain, remembering the past and visualizing the future look surprisingly similar.
June 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Alice climbs through the looking glass, she encounters a topsy-turvy world. People are punished before committing a crime, and sometimes fingers bleed before a pinprick occurs. Those strange events reflect a...

Amazon Expeditions: My Quest for the Ice-Age Equator.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 21, 2008... Amazon Expeditions: My Quest for the Ice-Age Equator Paul Colinvaux [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 1964, Paul Colinvaux began his life's work--trying to understand the ice-age climate of the Amazon through mud cores and the pollen...

Mortal Coil: A Short History of Living Longer.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 21, 2008... Mortal Coil: A Short History of Living Longer David Boyd Haycock [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As Jonathan Swift once said, everyone wants to live forever, but no one wants to be old. Despite that snag, the question has lingered: Must we...

Science Lessons: What the Business of Biotech Taught Me about Management.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 21, 2008... Science Lessons: What the Business of Biotech Taught Me about Management Gordon Binder and Philip Bashe [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The former CEO of Amgen narrates the company's rise from start-up to biotech giant. Harvard...

Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 21, 2008... Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human Elizabeth Hess [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The story of a chimp being raised by humans--and washing the dishes (p. 130). Bantam Books, 2008, 369 p., $23.

Up River: Man-Made Sites of Interest on the Hudson from the Battery to Troy.(SN BOOKSHELF)(American Regional Landscape Series)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 21, 2008... Up River: Man-Made Sites of Interest on the Hudson from the Battery to Troy Center for Land Use Interpretation, American Regional Landscape Series [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Take a tour through aerial photographs of the Hudson's...

On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine.(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 21, 2008... On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine Nicolas Rasmussen [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The rise, fall and resurgence of the original "antidepressants." New York Univ. Press, 2008, 352 p., $29.95 (cloth).

We Dare You!(SN BOOKSHELF)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 21, 2008... We Dare You! Vicki Cobb and Kathy Darling [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Make an egg stand on end, suspend a Ping-Pong ball with a hair dryer and do other fun science demos at home. Skyhorse Publishing, 2008, 321 p., $19.95.

Complex schemes.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 21, 2008... The article repeatedly mentions liquid CO2, which has to be under high pressure to become a liquid. Has the CO2 released from burning fuel to run the necessary compressors and pumps been considered, or would those be powered with wind or solar...

Stop burning carbon.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 21, 2008... It is less economical to patch a broken system with an after-damage repair than to eliminate the problem in the first place--in this case, the use of combustion to generate power. For a smaller investment, and in less time, we can ramp up...

Underwater logging.(Feedback)(Letter to the editor)
June 21, 2008... Thank you for a thorough article. The idea of digging trenches to bury trees seems extremely work-intensive and destructive. Wood waste could be buried under the overburden in strip mining operations, or sunk to anaerobic depths in deep lakes...

Challenges to building a disaster-resilient nation.(COMMENT)
June 21, 2008... The deadly typhoon that struck Burma in early May and the devastating earthquake that struck China a week later carried with them echoes of the devastation wrought by the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami on the Indian Ocean region in 2004. In the...