Science News articles from March 2009

Science News archives from March 2009

Despite some detractors, Darwin deserves his lauds.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Charles Darwin )
March 14, 2009... There are no features about Charles Darwin in this issue. And that apparently will please some people, for reasons that are difficult to fathom. Science News recently celebrated Darwin's 200th birthday with a package of features in the...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Drew Rendall on scientific discoveries)(Quotation)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... "I'm not a big believer in 'insightful discovery' or the 'Aha!' moment in science. At least not as the kind of purely creative process it's sometimes taken to be. I think most of what are called discoveries already exist really, in the dots of...

Science past: from the issue of March 14, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Artificial Planet Two)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... ARTIFICIAL PLANET LAUNCHED--The United States launched its first artificial planet, now in perpetual orbit around the sun, on March 3 at 12:10 a.m., EST. The 13.4-pound cone-shaped capsule joined Russia's Lunik in a sun-circling path. Some 41...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(festivals; Earth Day; exhibits)(Brief article)(Calendar)
March 14, 2009... Until April 4 Participate in the San Diego Science Festival. Search the kid-friendly event calendar at www.sdsciencefestival.org April 22 Find ways to join in the global celebration of the 39th annual Earth Day at www.earthday.net...

Atom & cosmos.(SN Online)(gamma-ray burst)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... When astronomers say burst, they really mean it: GRB 080916C (shown below) is the most energetic gamma-ray burst found so far. See "New window on the high-energy universe." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Humans.(SN Online)(positivity; anxiety disorders)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Think positive! People who attended a few sessions on how to focus on positive words or images had at least four months of freedom from anxiety disorders. Read "Don't worry, get attention training."

Body & brain.(SN Online)
March 14, 2009... The widely used drug propranolol could also help people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Read "Beta-blockers erase emotion of fearful memories."

The (-est).(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(quantum dots)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Each purple and pink spot in this image represents a "quantum dot" consisting of a single atom of silicon--the smallest quantum dots ever created. Scientists have suggested that quantum dots could be used to store information in powerful...

Science stats: industry-funded R&D.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)
March 14, 2009... Comparison of academic research and development financed by industry in all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and select member nations, 1981-2006 [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Team decodes Neandertal DNA: genome draft may reveal secrets of human evolution.(STORY ONE)(deoxyribonucleic acid)
March 14, 2009... CHICAGO -- An international group of scientists has completed the first rough draft of the Neandertal genetic instruction manual. The new evidence suggests that humans and Neandertals are very similar but probably didn't interbreed. ...

Physics can unite phytoplankton: ocean's version of wind shear disorients marine microbes.(Life)
March 14, 2009... Phytoplankton sometimes come together in the ocean because they can't tell which way is up, new research suggests. Oceanographers have long known that certain species of phytoplankton often form kilometers-wide layers only a few centimeters...

Census goes to the poles.(Life)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Arctic and Antarctic waters may look scarily hostile for living things, but a preview of a sea life count reports 13,000 kinds of animals living at one pole or the other--or both. A collaboration called the Census of...

About-face: the farside exposed: mission provides gravity map of moon's hidden half.(Atom & Cosmos)
March 14, 2009... Nearly 400 years after Galileo viewed the moon's nearside through a telescope, scientists still know relatively little about the moon's hidden half- the hemisphere that always faces away from Earth. Now, researchers have for the first time...

Two satellites collide in Earth orbit; impact generated more debris than any other in recent years.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... The orbital highways above Earth have been getting more crowded for years, but it wasn't until February 10 that two satellites had their first major smashup. A functioning U.S. device and a non-operating Russian instrument collided in...

A better test for prostate cancer: high concentrations of sarcosine signal aggressive cases.(Body & Brain)
March 14, 2009... A compound called sarcosine may distinguish slow-growing prostate cancers from those likely to spread and become lethal, a new study shows. And in an unexpected finding, benign prostate cells take on cancerous characteristics in lab dishes when...

For gamblers, almost counts: near-misses activate the same brain circuitry as wins.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, some say. But to the gambling brain, almost hitting the slot machine jackpot maybe as good as winning, a study in the Feb. 12 Neuron suggests. The results may help explain gambling's allure....

Stress may help keep cells young: aging-related protein SIRT1 aids heat shock response.(Body & Brain)
March 14, 2009... A lot of stress can turn your hair gray, but a little stress can actually delay aging. A protein tied to protecting cells from stress also helps slow aging, a new study finds. The research, published February 20 in Science, identifies a key...

Incentives boost tobacco quit rate; smokers who receive cash more likely to kick the habit.(Humans)
March 14, 2009... People offered several hundred dollars to quit smoking over the course of a year are three times more likely to kick the habit than those who receive counseling information but no financial reward, researchers report in the Feb. 12 New England...

Fatal fallout from financial failure: economic woes in Asia heralded increases in suicide rates.(Humans)
March 14, 2009... When an economy goes bad in a hurry, lives aren't just ruined--tragically, they're sometimes lost. A currency collapse that spread across much of Asia from July 1997 to January 1998 was closely related to an abrupt upsurge in suicide rates in...

Arctic haze: From Russia, with soot: smoke from forest fires, agricultural burning blankets north.(Environment)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Data gathered by aircraft flying over northern Alaska and the Arctic Ocean in April 2008 hint that much of the haze that blankets the region in spring, long thought to be associated with industrial emissions, in fact results from forest fires...

Genome duplications may separate humans from other great apes; copying and rearranging of DNA led to structural differences.(Genes & Cells)
March 14, 2009... Although it may not be as dramatic as the Big Bang birthing the universe, an explosion of DNA duplication in the common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees and gorillas may be responsible for many of the differences among those species, a new study...

Sponge's secret weapon revealed; chemical restores bacteria's vulnerability to antibiotics.(LIFE)
March 14, 2009... A chemical from an ocean-dwelling sponge can reprogram antibiotic-resistant bacteria to make them vulnerable to medicines again, new evidence suggests. Once-ineffective antibiotics proved lethal for bacteria treated with the compound,...

Jumping genes provide diversity; DNA elements shape human genomes in unexpected ways.(GENES & CELLS)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Mobile pieces of DNA may have given humans a jump-start on evolution, a new study reveals. Jumping genes, pieces of DNA that replicate and insert themselves into a host's genome, have been actively shaping human and other primate...

'Green gas' vs. greenhouse gases: clearing tropical forests to grow biofuel crops doesn't add up.(ENVIRONMENT)
March 14, 2009... Biofuels could lose their green sheen if they are grown at the expense of tropical forests. Demand for the liquid fuels could lead to severe deforestation, researchers warn, which would release far more carbon into the atmosphere than that...

Kids' gestures foretell better vocabularies: language acquisition may begin before children talk.(HUMANS)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Anyone who has witnessed a 3-year-old imitate a rude hand signal from his car seat knows that young children are perfectly capable of picking up gestures from adults. New research suggests that 14-month-old children who gesture more will go on...

Lice-laced salmon are easy dinner: parasites from fish farms slow down juveniles in the wild.(LIFE)
March 14, 2009... Young lice-infested wild salmon not only bear the burden of a parasite load, but also are more likely to get snapped up by predators than their clean schoolmates, new studies show. The research, presented February 15, adds to a growing body...

Hungry penguins march.(LIFE)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Residents of Magellanic penguin colonies along the central coasts of Argentina dine in the cold south Atlantic. But as big swings in climate push preferred stocks of anchovy, hake and squid northward, the penguins...

MRSA has its day in the sun.(MEETING NOTES)(methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... A sunburn and sand between the toes may not be all you take home from a day at the beach. An antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria known as MRSA lurks in ocean water and perhaps in sand, Lisa Piano of the University of Miami's Miller School...

Bullies' brains empathize, sort of.(MEETING NOTES)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Seeing a hand slammed in a car door makes most people cringe. But bullies seem to lack such empathy, possibly explaining why they can repeatedly inflict pain on others. Now a study suggests that adolescents with aggressive conduct...

Coupons help evaluate game of Go.(MEETING NOTES)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... A twist on the ancient board game Go may clarify the complicated mathematics behind games like chess, new research suggests. Using coupons to quantify the value of moves in the game allowed researchers to describe the math behind the game...

Stress makes plants nutritious.(MEETING NOTES)(Brief article)
March 14, 2009... Antioxidant vitamins, flavonoids and many other beneficial trace nutrients in fruits and veggies help defend plants from pests--and sometimes even the botanical equivalent of sunburn. Food chemist Alyson Mitchell of the University of...

Cold panacea: two researchers proclaimed 20 years ago that they'd achieved cold fusion, the ultimate energy solution. The workwent nowhere, but the hope remains.(Martin Fleischmann and B. Stanley Ports)
March 14, 2009... It was like the cavalry had shown up. Twenty years ago, newspapers and broadcasters burst with news from the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City delivering what seemed a miracle. Its name was cold fusion. Its lure was simple:...

Science stimulus: researchers look to the new administration to bring fresh perspectives to health, energy, climate policy and science funding.(Cover story)
March 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Barack Obama has proven to be an impresario at selling new policies- and at selling himself as the best man to implement them. On the stump a year ago he promised a no-nonsense, let's-fix-this approach to the...

Recurring anomaly.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
March 14, 2009... The article "Half-life (more or less)" (SN: 11/22/08, p. 20) is not your first about the changing rate of radioactive decay. "Hurrying a nuclear identity switch" (SN: 10/9/04, p. 238) describes placing a beryllium-7 into a 60-carbon molecule...

Noseguard for dolphins.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
March 14, 2009... Sponges on the beaks of dolphins may make a good tool to scare up hidden fish ("Dolphins wield tools of the sea, SN: 1/3/09, p. 13), but the sponge also protects the dolphin from the deadly cone shells that hide in the sand. Joanne Harris,...

Diabetes, junk food and sleep.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
March 14, 2009... I came across the article "Gene connects lack of shut-eye with diabetes" (SN: 1/3/09, p. 5) after having just worked more than 24 hours. While it is no longer common for physicians in an operating room to work 48-72 hours without sleep, 18-36...

Cold versus warm dino roost.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
March 14, 2009... That a male dinosaur may have been fossilized in a brooding position ("Dinosaur dads as caretakers," SN: 1/17/09, p. 14) could be relevant to the debate over whether the dinosaurs were warm-blooded (or more correctly, endothermic). If female...

Science on the Air: Popularizers and Personalities on Radio and Early Television.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 14, 2009... Science on the Air: Popularizers and Personalities on Radio and Early Television Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Facts--Interest!--Thrill!! News! papers using Science Service have discovered that science is...

Bookshelf.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 14, 2009... The World Is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Fattening the Human Race Barry Popkin [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Four family profiles link the modern lifestyle to obesity. Avery, 2009, 229 p., $24.95. Questions of...

Rush Holt: U.S. science remains far from 'its rightful place'.(COMMENT)(Interview)
March 14, 2009... Rush Holt, a plasma physicist by training, represents New Jersey's 12th Congressional District in the U.S. Congress. From 1989 to 1998, Holt was assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a research institute focused on...