Science News articles from March 2006

Science News archives from March 2006

Do over: new MS drug may be safe after all.(multiple sclerosis)
March 4, 2006... An experimental drug for multiple sclerosis (MS) that was approved in 2004, then abruptly yanked off shelves last year because of safety concerns, may get a second chance. Two studies show that the drug can curb MS symptoms and slow...

Cannibal power: Mormon crickets swarm to eat and not be eaten.
March 4, 2006... What drives the relentless march of Mormon crickets across the landscape is both a craving for food and a reluctance to be cannibalized, says an international research team. The swarms loom large in the lore of the American West, but...

Ancient Andean Maize makers: finds push back farming, trade in highland Peru.
March 4, 2006... Nearly 4,000 years ago, large societies emerged in the Andes Mountains of southern Peru that would culminate 1,500 years later in the rise of the Inca civilization. Now, scientists have the first evidence that these Inca predecessors cultivated...

Gender gap: male-only gene affects men's dopamine levels.
March 4, 2006... A gene found only in men is key to regulating the brain's production of dopamine, a new study shows. The finding offers a clue to why men are more likely than women to develop dopamine-related illnesses such as Parkinson's disease,...

Unique explosion: gamma-ray burst leads astronomers to supernova.
March 4, 2006... Using scores of telescopes, astronomers worldwide are chasing one of the most intriguing stellar explosions detected in nearly a decade. The supernova--a catastrophic collapse of a massive star--is one of only a handful of these explosions...

Smoldered-earth policy: created by ancient Amazonian natives, fertile, dark soils retain abundant carbon.
March 4, 2006... Shortly after the U.S. Civil War, a research expedition encountered a group of Confederate expatriates living in Brazil. The refugees had quickly taken to growing sugarcane on plots of earth that were darker and more fertile than the...

Gold-metal results: compounds block immune proteins.
March 4, 2006... Metals such as platinum and gold keep certain proteins from stimulating the body's immune response, a study finds. The results suggest how some metal-based drugs might ease autoimmune symptoms, the researchers say. They were screening...

Eat smart: foods may affect the brain as well as the body.
March 4, 2006... This is pate two of a two-part series on lifestyle and brain fitness. At family dinner tables around the globe, prodding mothers have dished out the same refrain for decades: "Eat your fish," they say. "It's brain food!" For children...

Saving sturgeon: ancient fish face increasingly tough times.(Cover story)
March 4, 2006... On a fine spring day alongside a Wisconsin river, several biologists wrestle a muscular, 120-pound fish onto her back and straddle her. The moves wouldn't be out o ace in a rodeo. As the team restrains her, one member massages her swollen...

Babies show budding number knowledge.(Brief article)
March 4, 2006... Before they start to talk, babies can recognize the difference between two and three entities, a new study suggests. Most 7-month-old infants match the number of faces that they see talking--whether two or three--with the number of voices...

Tiny ticker.(genetic research)(Brief article)
March 4, 2006... Researchers have demonstrated that they can control how frequently a DNA-based nanodevice changes between two forms. Their "nanometronome" is the first example of such control over a single DNA molecule, the team contends. The device...

A dim view of biologic and chemical agents.(Brief article)
March 4, 2006... A new type of sensor that uses tiny optical lenses may someday detect the first signs of disease or chemical contamination in blood or other liquids. Each microscopic lens, less than half the diameter of a red blood cell, undergoes a...

Making the most of chip fabrication.(Brief article)
March 4, 2006... For more than 40 years, the microelectronics industry has made ever-smaller, usually-cheaper, and more-powerful circuits using one set of basic manufacturing methods. Scientists now report that tweaks to a key optical process improve those...

Chasing a stellar blast.(ASTRONOMY)(Brief article)
March 4, 2006... An exploding star recently discovered in a nearby galaxy may be a milestone in the study of type 1a supernovas. In this past decade, astronomers have used these stellar explosions, produced when an elderly star called a white dwarf blows...

Closed pores mean more fresh water.(Brief article)
March 4, 2006... Global temperatures may be on the rise, but plants are drinking and sweating less water. This plant-tissue response to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is having a significant trickle-down effect, a new study finds. Plants...

China's deserts expand with population growth.(Brief article)
March 4, 2006... Carried forward by winds and sandstorms, the dunes of northern China are expanding at an unprecedented rate, Chinese researchers say. Human activities are primarily responsible for desertification of the arid and semiarid grasslands of the...

Corals don't spread far from their birthplaces.
March 4, 2006... Creating protected marine areas in one part of the Caribbean won't replenish distant coral reefs in the region, according to genetic research. Because free-swimming coral larvae reefs in the region in our lifetimes, says Steve Palumbi of...

Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 4, 2006... CELIAC DISEASE: A Hidden Epidemic PETER H.R. GREEN AND RORY JONES Celiac disease affects up to 1 percent of the world's population but is diagnosed in far fewer people because its symptoms masquerade as those of many other...

Coffee: A Dark History.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 4, 2006... COFFEE: A Dark History ANTONY WILD The history of coffee is as rich and dark as its brew, once known as the "wine of Araby." The bean's extensive cultivation and worldwide popularity echoes capitalistic and political development in...

The Rock from Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 4, 2006... THE ROCK FROM MARS: A Detective Stow on Two Planets KATHY SAWYER In 1996, President Bill Clinton held a press conference celebrating Martian rock 84001 that, as he put it, "speaks the possibility of life." This proclamation launched a...

The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 4, 2006... THE NAMING OF NAMES: The Search for Order in the World of Plants ANNA PAVORD Modern botanical taxonomy, the systematic naming of plants, arose out of necessity: Early-17th-century apothecaries needed to know whether the herbs going...

Conservations on Consciousness: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 4, 2006... CONVERSATIONS ON CONSCIOUSNESS: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human SUSAN BLACKMORE Consciousness. Where does it come from? Is it somehow separate from the human brain? Can the brain...

Impure thoughts.(Letter to the editor)
March 4, 2006... Epidemiologist Scott Davis warns, "Melatonin supplements are not regulated" the way drugs are.... "There may be all kinds of impurities and contaminants" ("Bright Lights, Big Cancer: Melatonin-depleted blood spurs tumor growth," SN: 1/7/06, p....

Daydream on.(Letter to the editor)
March 4, 2006... It seems to me irresponsible even to float the idea, as neurologist David M. Holtzman does, of chemically suppressing idle thought and daydreaming in people ("Alzheimer Clue: Busy brain connections may have downside," SN: 1/7/06, p. 3). Who can...

Print addition.(Letter to the editor)
March 4, 2006... "Stone Age Footwork: Ancient human prints turn up down under" (SN: 1/7/06, p. 3) brought a strange conundrum to mind. If Paleolithic man was in Australia 40,000 years ago, why were the aboriginal people still living in the Stone Age when the...

Magnetic memory: new model forecasts solar storms.(Report)
March 11, 2006... Even at its quietest, the sun about once a week belches out a billion-ton cloud of charged particles and magnetic fields. When those eruptions are directed toward Earth, they can irradiate astronauts, disable satellites, and knock out power...

Got Data? Consuming calcium, dairy doesn't keep off weight.
March 11, 2006... Dairy products and other calcium-containing foods and supplements don't prevent weight gain, according to a 12-year study of thousands of middle-aged men. But some scientists maintain that the finding has no bearing on the dairy industry's...

Polynesian latecomers: Easter Islanders took fast track to culture.
March 11, 2006... Massive stone statues of humanlike figures on Easter Island in the South Pacific stand mute sentry over the remains of a now-defunct society thought by many researchers to have originated as early as A.D. 400. However, new radiocarbon...

Fit moms, brainier babies: exercising mothers provide neurological benefits.
March 11, 2006... Offspring of mice that jogged each day during pregnancy may have an advantage over pups of sedentary morns, according to a new study. In a part of the brain that contributes to learning and memory, the exercisers' pups have more cells than...

Vesuvius' shadow: a major volcanic blast could threaten Naples.
March 11, 2006... When Italy's Mount Vesuvius begins to rumble again, nearby Naples maybe in danger, a new study shows. In 4,000-year-old ash beds buried under the city, researchers have uncovered the first geologic evidence that the volcano's power could extend...

Peeling back Orion's layers: astronomers unveil a portrait of star formation.
March 11, 2006... Somewhere in the universe, in the dim recesses of a vast cloud of gas and dust, wisps of material are slowly coalescing onto a clump that has been growing for hundreds of thousands of years. Squeezed by gravity, hydrogen atoms deep within the...

Indigestion drug makes headway.(Itopride for treating Functional dyspepsia )(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... Functional dyspepsia is the diagnosis that doctors often assign to people with chronic indigestion who don't have a stomach ulcer or clear signs of acid-reflux disease. These people have a sense of fullness even though they haven't eaten much,...

Pluto's posse.(Pluto two small moons observations)(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on Feb. 15 have confirmed that Pluto has two small, previously unknown moons. First detected by Hubble last year (SN: 11/5/05, p. 291), each moon is only about 50 kilometers across, less than...

A link between emotional stress and heart attacks.(BIOMEDICINE)(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... The biological events linking emotional stress and heart attack are poorly understood. Researchers now find that in some people with heart disease, a stressful event precipitates changes in blood components and flow that may trigger a heart...

Spore-detecting diving board.(bacteria detection methods)(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... Researchers have demonstrated a new way to detect bacteria. The approach could lead to faster and more reliable detection of virulent microbes in the environment. Most detection systems capture microbes by using an antibody to bind to a...

Thymus twice as nice for mice.(mouse has two T cells producing sources)(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... Researchers have long assumed that a mouse has only a single thymus. This organ, located directly over the heart, generates immune system components called T cells that protect the body from many pathogens. However, new research has turned up a...

Fragment foils Alzheimer's protein.(Report)(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... Chemists have synthesized a protein fragment that, in test-tube studies, disrupts the formation of the fiber networks suspected to be a cause of Alzheimer's disease. In the brains of Alzheimer's patients, a protein called beta-amyloid...

Low-protein diet boosts treatment.(Parkinson's disease treatment)(Report)(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... In patients with Parkinson's disease, the brain's dopamine-secreting neurons inexorably die off. The most common treatment to combat the tremors, slowness, and rigidity in these patients is a dopamine precursor called levodopa. But the drug's...

Genes for macular degeneration.(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... Variations in two genes could account for three-quarters of all cases of age-related macular degeneration, a new study reports. The disease is the leading cause of blindness in people over 60 and affects more than 50 million people...

No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality.(book review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 11, 2006... NO TWO ALIKE: Human Nature and Human Individuality JUDITH RICH HARRIS Most people believe that they're the product of both their genes and their environments, or nature and nurture. Why, then, do conjoined identical twins, who have the...

Chasing Hubble's Shadows: The Search for Galaxies at the Edge of Time.(book review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 11, 2006... CHASING HUBBLE'S SHADOWS: The Search for Galaxies at the Edge of Time JEFF KANIPE Part history, part detective story, and even part travelogue, this is astronomy journalist Kanipe's attempt to explain cosmology to the average reader....

Terrors of the Table: The Curious History of Nutrition.(book review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 11, 2006... TERRORS OF THE TABLE: The Curious History of Nutrition WALTER GRATZER Before the early 17th century, little scientific attention was given to what we put in our mouths, beyond basic admonitions against overindulgence and obesity....

The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations.(book review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 11, 2006... THE WINDS OF CHANGE: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations EUGENE LINDEN Anthropologists and historians who piece together the how and why of the ascent and collapse of civilizations, Linden writes, often overlook one...

Seasonal effect?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
March 11, 2006... Might your article, "Bright Lights, Big Cancer" (SN: 1/7/06, p. 8), on breast cancer have missed something? If the daily light-dark cycle affects melatonin, is there a seasonal change in cancer rates in the Northern (and Southern) Hemispheres?...

Bad fit?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
March 11, 2006... The picture of the new cochlear implant ("Hearing implant knows where it goes,' SN: 1/14/06, p. 29) shows a square piece that is to be implanted deeply into the inner ear. "Square peg in a round hole" was my response. Why doesn't the probe have...

All together.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
March 11, 2006... I experienced something very interesting after Sept. 11, 2001 ("Masters of Disaster: Survey taps resilience of post-9/11 New York," SN: 1/14/06, p. 19). Rather than post-traumatic stress disorder, there seemed to be a togetherness exhibited. I...

Correlation, not cause.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
March 11, 2006... The conclusion drawn by pediatrician Julie C. Lumeng in "Fattening fears" (SN: 1/14/06, p. 30) is that parents' safety concerns lead to kids being cooped up indoors where the opportunity for exercise is limited and food is easily accessible....

Meddling with metal: novel nanocontrol yields chromium rival.(This Week)
March 11, 2006... A legal battle launched in 1993 over toxic chromium metal became the basis for the movie Erin Brockovich, which featured superstar Julia Roberts. Now, materials scientists have quietly taken aim at one common use of that harmful substance by...

Ear Protection: combo vaccine prevents some infections.(Streptorix)
March 11, 2006... A vaccine that triggers immunity against two common bacteria can prevent many ear infections in babies, a European team of researchers reports. Middle ear infections send roughly 20 million U.S. children, most of them infants, to the...

Crater in the sand.(discovered impact craters in Sahara)(Brief article)
March 11, 2006... Researchers analyzing satellite images of th Sahara have discovered the region's largest impact crater, a 31-kilometer-wide feature located in remote southwestern Egypt. The crater's heavily eroded rim (marked by the white dashes) rises about...

All square: a surprising, far-reaching overhaul for theories about quadratic expressions.
March 11, 2006... Start with the square numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, and so on. Pick any other number and you can express it as a sum of squares. For example, 10 = 1 + 1 + 4 + 4 and 30 = 1 + 4 + 9 + 16. In 1770, French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange proved...

Peeling back Orion's layers: astronomers unveil a portrait of star formation.(Orion Nebula)
March 11, 2006... Somewhere in the universe, in the dim recesses of a vast cloud of gas and dust, wisps of material are slowly coalescing onto a clump that has been growing for hundreds of thousands of years. Squeezed by gravity, hydrogen atoms deep within the...

Cosmic triumph: satellite confirms birth theory of universe.(This Week)
March 18, 2006... The most detailed portrait ever taken of the radiation left over from the Big Bang provides fresh evidence that the universe began with a tremendous growth spurt, expanding from subatomic scales to the size of a grapefruit in less than a...

Stent repair: coated replacements better than radiation.(This Week)
March 18, 2006... Small mesh cylinders called stents, which doctors surgically implant to prop open clogged arteries, have a vexing tendency to become blocked soon after they're inserted. Stents can be cleared, but the only approved treatment for keeping a...

Shaken but not stirred: rock formations reveal past quakes' size limit.(This Week)
March 18, 2006... Dozens of precariously balanced rocks in southern California tell a story just by standing there: Earthquakes that have occurred on nearby faults in recent millennia haven't exceeded magnitude 7. Researchers developing seismic-hazard maps for...

Networking with friends: nanotech material reconnects severed neurons.(self-assembling peptide nanofiber scaffold )
March 18, 2006... A new material made of nanometer-size protein particles appears to be capable of bridging the gap between severed nerves. The finding could lead to an effective early treatment for spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, or...

Grown-up connections: mice, monkeys remake brain links as adults.(This Week)
March 18, 2006... Two new studies raise the bar on estimates of the magnitude of changes in nerve connections in the brain's outer layer, or cortex, during adulthood. Cells' anchor points for these neural connections undergo substantial adjustments in the...

Can you hear me now? Frogs in roaring streams use ultrasonic calls.(This Week)
March 18, 2006... A small frog species from China is the first amphibian shown to use ultrasonic calls, says an international research team. Equipment designed for studying bats picked up high-pitched chirrups in the calls of the concave-eared torrent frog...

The art of the fold.(Paul Rothemund made nanostructures using DNA strands)(Brief article)
March 18, 2006... Behind this simple grin is one of the most complex nanostructures ever made. To construct this 100-nanometer-wide smiley face, computer scientist Paul Rothemund of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena improved on a technique known...

Prescription for controversy: medications for depressed kids spark scientific dispute.(selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)
March 18, 2006... Among medications, antidepressants take the prize for inciting public and media mood swings. Whether celebrated as depression-busting happy pills or dismissed as overrated and apt to cause dangerous side effects, selective serotonin reuptake...

Light all night: new images quantify a nocturnal pollutant.
March 18, 2006... Ansel Adams once called his photography of the nation's parklands a "blazing poetry of the real." If scientific data were verse, that description would also fit Chad Moore's pictures. Taken in dozens of national parks, mostly in the western...

Out of the shadows: not all early mammals were shy and retiring.
March 18, 2006... Only a few years ago, it was easy to pity the mammals that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. Most paleontologists presumed that those tiny, shrewlike creatures, ecologically marginalized by their reptilian oppressors, thrived only by remaining...

Viral building blocks.(viral proteins can form tubular nanostructures)(Brief article)
March 18, 2006... Proteins taken from a spherical virus and combined with pieces of DNA can form tubular nanostructures, researchers report. The finding could offer clues to how such molecules self-assemble. In nature, the well-studied cowpea chlorotic...

Small difference factored big in rice domestication.(genetic research of rice crop)(Brief article)
March 18, 2006... A change in a single position of a rice plant's genetic code lets it hold onto grains until harvest, new research suggests. The finding may give scientists new insights into how people domesticated rice, a food eaten daily by about half the...

Evolution persisted in agricultural era.(natural selection research done on genetic evidence)(Brief article)
March 18, 2006... Natural selection continued to sculpt humanity's genetic identity after the Stone Age gave way to farming around 11,000 years ago, according to a new DNA analysis. A team led by Jonathan K. Pritchard of the University of Chicago identified...

Manufacturers agree to phase out nonstick chemical.(perfluorooctanoic acid )(Brief article)
March 18, 2006... Complying with a request from the Environmental Protection Agency, the companies that make perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) have agreed to work toward ending production of the chemical worldwide by 2015. The agency requested the voluntary phaseout...

After the Earth Quakes: Elastic Rebound on an Urban Planet.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 18, 2006... AFTER THE EARTH QUAKES: Elastic Rebound on an Urban Planet SUSAN ELIZABETH HOUGH AND ROGER G. BILHAM On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck the ocean floor off the coast of Indonesia. The resulting tsunami claimed nearly 300,000...

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 18, 2006... CURRY: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors LIZZIE COLLINGHAM The menu of curries, masalas, and vindaloos from the average Indian restaurant reflects the full flavor and rich variety of the subcontinent's cuisine. Culinary expert and historian...

Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 18, 2006... SONGBIRD JOURNEYS: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds MIYOKO CHU Each season, migratory songbirds travel thousands of miles to mate, forage, and raise their young in a carefully orchestrated exercise that has captured the...

In Search of Memory: The Emergence of A New Science of Mind.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 18, 2006... IN SEARCH OF MEMORY: The Emergence of A New Science of Mind ERIC R. KANDEL In 1952, Kandel entered medical school with the intent of becoming a psychoanalyst, but his interests shifted to the biology of the brain--and with good effect:...

The Equations: Icons of Knowledge.(Books: A selection of new and notable books of scientific interest)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 18, 2006... THE EQUATIONS: Icons of Knowledge SANDER BAIS Physicists use mathematics as a language to express the laws of the universe. Equations are simple, concise summaries of these laws. In this elegant book, Bais, a theoretical physicist, explores...

Comfort zones.(Letter to the editor)
March 18, 2006... Just because living organisms were found in extreme conditions does not necessarily mean they were created in these localities ("Is Anybody out There?" SN: 1/21/06, p. 42). Another possibility is that the creation of life took place under more...

Sand bagging.(Letter to the editor)
March 18, 2006... "In Pixels and in Health" (SN: 1/21/06, p. 40) illustrates one of the fascinating ways in which cellular automata have evolved into a truly useful analytical tool. However, would it not be more linguistically consistent, not to mention more...

Red alert for scientists.(Letter to the editor)
March 18, 2006... "Red Alert for Red Apes: DNA shows big losses for Borneo orangutans" (SN: 1/28/06, p. 51) details logging and poaching practices that have decimated the orangutan population on Borneo. These practices are not only sad, they're criminal. It's...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 18, 2006... The name of John McDonald, director of the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, was misspelled in "Buff and Brainy" (SN: 2/25/06, p. 122).

Tiny bubbles: oldest evidence yet for methane makers.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
March 25, 2006... Analyses of the gases dissolved in water trapped in ancient minerals suggest that methane-generating microbes have been around almost 3.5 billion years, more than 700 million years longer than previous geologic evidence had indicated. Because...

Mood meds' second wind: depression drugs aided by extra treatment step.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
March 25, 2006... A second, modified course of drug treatment fosters recovery in a substantial minority of depressed adults who don't feel better after treatment with a commonly prescribed antidepressant, according to a federally funded investigation. ...

Reality botany: data ease doubts about plant species.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
March 25, 2006... Despite the doubts of some botanists, plant species aren't just some arbitrary human classification scheme, says a team of evolutionary biologists. What's more, plants don't deserve their reputation of being outrageously promiscuous, breeding...

Defect detector: plugging holes in a breast cancer-gene screen.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
March 25, 2006... A European genetic test catches mutations that are missed by the sole test commercially available in the United States to screen the so-called breast cancer genes, a new study shows. The genes, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, normally encode...

Still standing: tsunamis won't wash away Maldives atolls.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
March 25, 2006... Tiny coral-reef islands such as those in the Maldives archipelago may appear fragile, but they aren't easily swept away, a new study shows. The waves of the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami were devastating to the islands' inhabitants, but researchers now...

Tipsy superfluids: glimpsing off-kilter quantum clouds.(SCIENCE NEWS This Week)
March 25, 2006... Physicists last year created an exotic state of matter previously unattainable in the laboratory but whose characteristics theorists have debated for more than 40 years. The latest probes of the new state suggest that the material--a cloud of...

Comet sampler: fire meets ice.(Don Brownlee research on comet dust)
March 25, 2006... The first study of comet dust brought to Earth by a spacecraft has revealed several minerals that could have formed only at the fiery temperatures close to the sun or another star. The findings come as a surprise because comets, frozen relics...

Making the most of it: how nature turns weakness into strength.
March 25, 2006... Marc A. Meyers came up with the idea for his most recent research project on a walk with his father some 40 years ago. They were in the forest near their home in a small town in Brazil, and Meyers stopped to rest. That's when he noticed a...

That's one weird tooth: and other bulletins on the elusive narwhal.(research by Martin Nweeia )
March 25, 2006... What Martin Nweeia noticed first when he encountered narwhals, he says, was the sound. In May 2000, as spring was just reaching Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, a famed local hunter took Nweeia out on the ice searching the open water for...