Science News articles from May 2003

Science News archives from May 2003

Hominid tree gets trimmed twice. (Ancestral Bushwhack).(changed standards for identifying hominid species)
May 3, 2003... Many anthropologists suspect that hominids, ancient members of the human evolutionary family, branched into as many as 20 different now-extinct species over roughly the past 6 million years. At scientific meetings in Phoenix last week, two...

Superlong nanotubes can form a grid. (Nanoscale Networks).
May 3, 2003... For a decade, materials scientists have dreamed of using cylinders of carbon with walls just one atom thick as the building blocks for a new generation of sensors, transistors, and other tiny devices. Before that happens, however, researchers...

Seismic-alert system could give Los Angeles a few seconds' warning. (Sensing a Vibe).(earthquake prediction)
May 3, 2003... A sprawling network of seismometers that covers the Los Angeles area could be adapted to provide warning of damaging ground motions from earthquakes in the seconds before those seismic vibes arrive, according to a new analysis. Some other...

Shocking changes to light's properties. (Crystal Bash).(photonic crystals)
May 3, 2003... Sometimes a good, hard whack makes things work better. That's what a new study suggests about light-manipulating microstructures known as photonic crystals. Those orderly arrangements of tiny films, rods, balls, or even holes exclude...

Surprising shape of key cellular pore unveiled. (Paddle Power).
May 3, 2003... Underlying every thought and bodily motion are nerve and muscle cells sending or receiving electrical signals. Driving this activity are voltage-gated ion channels--pores that quickly open or dose to various ions depending on the electrical...

Quasars illuminate the young universe. (Chemistry of the Cosmos).
May 3, 2003... Measuring the composition of some of the earliest structures in the universe, two teams of astronomers have unveiled new findings about star formation when the cosmos was young. In one study, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to...

One gene may underlie various immune diseases. (Upsetting a Delicate Balance).
May 3, 2003... One form of an immune-system gene shows up more frequently in people with three different diseases than in people free of those illnesses, a new study shows. The findings suggest that this subtle genetic difference plays a role in two thyroid...

Minding your business: humanizing gadgetry to tame the flood of information.(human-machine interaction)
May 3, 2003... A telephone call to Roel Vertegaal's lab may cause a pair of plastic-foam eyeballs to wiggle. Those peepers are attached to a desktop gadget that Vertegaal says could presage a generation of what you might call digital secretaries--particularly...

Any hope for old chestnuts? Can't see the forest, but there are still some trees.
May 3, 2003... Ron Boekenhauer sounds remarkably cheerful for a man living among orphans of one of the country's most infamous ecological tragedies. He resides in the largest remaining stand of American chestnut trees. The straight-trunked giants once...

Another solution? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 3, 2003... "A Safe Solution" (SN: 3/1/03, p. 136) on home-water disinfection in Africa reminds me of a water treatment method proposed a long time ago. It consisted of a long (200-foot), U-shape tube sunk in the ground as part of the water-delivery...

Old way, good way. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 3, 2003... I read "Brain training aids kids with dyslexia" (SN: 3/15/03, p. 173) with both amazement and bemusement. The technique you describe has been in practice for decades, but without a computer. Samuel T. Orton realized that dyslexics needed to be...

It's in decay. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 3, 2003... The hominid dating puzzle is continually being pieced together due to interdisciplinary work between anthropologists and geologists ("Ancient people get dated Down Under, SN: 3/15/03, p. 173). I would note, however, that radiation decays (not...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
May 3, 2003... "Ancestors Go South" (SN: 4/26/03, p. 261) incorrectly referenced a previous article on Australopithecus fossils in eastern Africa that date to 4.1 million years ago. The article was from 1998, (SN: 5/16/98, p. 315), not 1999.

Protein implicated in Parkinson's disease. (Biomedicine).(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... The protein cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) appears in high concentrations in parts of the brain ravaged by Parkinson's disease, a new study shows, suggesting that this molecule plays a role in the disease. Scientists made the finding, which appears...

Seismic waves resolve continental debate. (Earth Science).(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Analyses of seismic waves that travel deep within Earth may resolve a decades-old debate about the thickness of the planet's continents. Some studies have suggested that the major landmasses in Earth's rigid outer shell--including the...

Roving on the Red Planet. (Astronomy).(exploration of Mars planned)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Last month, NASA selected the landing sites for identical rovers scheduled to begin exploring the Martian surface next January. Both sites show evidence they once contained liquid water and might therefore harbor fossils of primitive life. ...

Tipping tiny scales. (Technology).(detection devices for chemical and biological warfare)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Because even minuscule amounts of chemical or biological warfare agents can be harmful, sensor developers are striving to build devices to detect those weapons at the molecular level. It's difficult to make such detectors adequately sensitive...

Harbor waves yield secrets to analysis. (Earth Science).(seiches in Rotterdam, the Netherlands)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... New findings by ocean scientists may help port officials in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, predict potentially destructive waves in the city's harbor. Most of Rotterdam lies below sea level, and movable barriers near the mouth of the port's...

Not even bismuth-209 lasts forever. (Physics).(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Many heavy elements radioactively decay into lighter ones, although some do it faster than others. For decades, textbooks have listed bismuth-209 as the heaviest naturally occurring atom that never decays. A new experiment shows that the...

Egg's missing proteins thwart primate cloning. (Biology).(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Don't go ordering your c]one just yet. A new study indicates that it's almost impossible to clone a person by using the same techniques that work in mice and other nonprimates. Although scientists can now routinely clone mice, sheep,...

Ballistic defecation: hiding, not hygiene. (Zoology).(caterpillar behavior)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2003... Evading predators may be the big factor driving certain caterpillars to shoot their waste pellets great distances. Caterpillars of the silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) can fire their feces as far as 153 centimeters, reports Martha...

The Art of the Infinite: The Pleasures of Mathematics.(Book Review)
May 3, 2003... ROBERT KAPLAN AND ELLEN KAPLAN In The Nothing That Is, Robert Kaplan considered the relevance of zero to the history of mathematics. Now, along with his wife, Ellen Kaplan, he addresses infinity. Beginning with natural numbers and covering...

Freedom Evolves.(Book Review)
May 3, 2003... DANIEL C. DENNETT Can there be freedom in a deterministic world? If you are free, are you responsible for being free or just lucky? Dennett, the acclaimed author of Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea, answers these...

The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things.(Book Review)
May 3, 2003... HANNAH HOLMES In just a couple of breaths, each person inhales hundreds of thousands of dust specks. Some lodge in the nose, while others make their way to the lungs. Depending on the locale, these particles could contain skin flakes,...

The Silver Lining: The Benefits of Natural Disasters.(Book Review)
May 3, 2003... SETH R. REICE Almost instinctively, we do what we can to prevent floods and forest fires. While these events sometimes take a toll in human life and property, many ecologists argue that such disturbances are actually a boon to...

Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places.(f)(Book Review)
May 3, 2003... RUSSELL A. MITTERMEIER, CRISTINA GOETTSCH MITTERMEIER, PATRICIO ROBLES GIL, ET AL. More than just an oversized, coffee-table book filled with fantastic photographs of the plants, animals, and peoples that inhabit the world's wild places,...

More promise. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 3, 2003... Another new anti-HIV drug in the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) class that has shown promise ("Full Pipeline: Success of experimental AIDS drugs offers promise of future therapies," SN: 2/22/03, p. 117) is TMC125. You...

Slick stuff. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 3, 2003... The article on waterproof coats was interesting ("Waterproof Coats: Materials repel water with simplicity, style," SN: 3/1/03, p. 132), but the process used by the Turkish scientists would require evaporating the solvent. Should not possible...

It's not working. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 3, 2003... I was dismayed to see you publish an unsubstantiated and highly misleading claim that welfare "reform" is not harming children ("Working Out: Welfare reform hasn't changed kids so far," SN: 3/8/03, p. 149). The study dealt with the atypical...

Image reveals galaxy's violent past. (Starry View).(Andromdeda)
May 10, 2003... Often referred to as twins, the Milky Way and the nearby galaxy Andromeda have a similar spiral shape, size, and mass. What's more, Andromeda appears as unperturbed as the Milky Way. But a new image unveiled this week belies that serene...

Ag chemicals may cause prostate cancer. (Farm Harm).(exposure to agricultural chemicals)
May 10, 2003... On-the-job exposure to certain agricultural chemicals may be responsible for farmers' high rates of prostate cancer, suggest data from a large, ongoing study in two states. Farmers with relatives who have had prostate cancer may also face an...

Finally, a fly fossil from Antarctica. (Winging South).(schizophorans)
May 10, 2003... A tiny fossil collected about 500 kilometers from the South Pole indicates that Antarctica was once home to a type of fly that scientists long thought had never inhabited the now-icy, almost insectfree continent. The diverse group of fly...

Detergents may benefit from new insight. (Nanofluid Flow).
May 10, 2003... Water is a fabulous cleaning agent, but it's even better when tiny nanoscale particles, such as detergent surfactants, are dispersed in it. Much of this cleaning boost comes from the enhanced capacity of the detergent solution to spread out on...

Blood test for predicting pregnancy problems. (Preeclampsia Progress).(asymmetric dimethylarginine)
May 10, 2003... A natural compound that constricts blood vessels is overabundant in some women who develop preeclampsia or another late-term complication of pregnancy, researchers find. Testing for the substance might help doctors identify some women at risk...

IQ gains may reach rural Kenya's kids. (Harvesting Intelligence).(intelligence quotient testing)
May 10, 2003... Over a recent 14-year stretch, the children of African farmers working in a mountainous region of Kenya appear to have cultivated a record crop of IQ points. These youngsters, ages 6 to 8, scored about 11 points higher in 1998 than their peers...

Bacteria rid sewage of its stink. (A Breath of Fresh Air).(hydrogen sulfide)
May 10, 2003... Have you ever driven by a sewage-treatment plant and noticed a rotten-egg stink? Air-quality requirements force these plants to use devices called chemical scrubbers to eliminate malodorous hydrogen sulfide from the gases created by bacteria in...

Unproven elixir: hormone therapy tempts aging men, but its risks haven't yet been reckoned.(synthetic testosterone)
May 10, 2003... With each passing birthday, Mr. Y feels increasingly frail. His bones have grown fragile, his strength has slipped, and his muscles have given way to fat. His sex drive has waned, and his once-keen mind seems perpetually fogged. He often feels...

The fires below: burning coal sculpts landscapes worldwide.(underground fires in coal seams)
May 10, 2003... In Centralia, Pa., the ground is prone to sudden and unexpected collapse. Hot, sulfurous gases waft from vents in the earth, kill trees, drive away wildlife, and sometimes threaten people's lives. Plumes of I smoke rise from cracks in a highway...

Second cold-sensing protein found. (Biology).(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... They're on a hot streak. Researchers who last year discovered a mammalian cell-surface protein that senses coolness--and the presence of menthol--have now found a protein that enables nerve cells to recognize much colder temperatures (SN:...

Fast-track planet. (Astronomy).(fast orbit )(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Astronomers have found a planet that's the closest yet known to its parent star. It resides 3.5 million kilometers away from the star, less than one-sixteenth Mercury's distance from the sun. The planet takes 28 hours and 33 minutes to complete...

First Family's last stand. (African Ancestors).(fossil remains of early hominids)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Nearly 30 years ago, excavations at Ethiopia's Hadar site yielded the 3.2-million-year-old hominid remains of nine adults and four children who apparently met a sudden, collective demise. Researchers have since speculated that this group,...

Jaw-dropping find emerges from Stone Age cave. (European Ancestors).(jawbone of early Homo sapiens)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Researchers exploring a Romanian cave system in March 2002 got a prehistoric surprise. The scientists, directed by Oana Moldovan of the Romanian Academy in Cluj, swam through an underwater passageway and entered a largely dry, limestone...

Wari skulls create trophy-head mystery. (Peruvian Civilization).(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... In parts of what's now Peru, the Nasca and other prehistoric civilizations collected heads as spoils of war. Victorious warriors cut off the heads of vanquished enemies, drilled holes in their skulls to extract the brains, and modified these...

Ancestral split in Africa, China. (Behavioral Evolution).(Homo erectus)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2003... Homo erectus, the species usually regarded as the precursor of Homo sapiens, developed markedly different forms of behavior and social organization in Africa and China, says David E. Hopwood of the State University of New York at Binghamton....

DNA: the Secret of Life.(Book Review)
May 10, 2003... JAMES D. WATSON WITH ANDREW BERRY Marking the 50th anniversary of the famous declaration that DNA is a double helix, Watson reflects not only on how he and Francis Crick made the discovery, but also on how DNA has moved from an esoteric...

The Ingredients: a Guided Tour of the Elements.(Book Review)
May 10, 2003... PHILIP BALL In a companion to his book Stories of the Invisible, which chronicled the history of molecules, Ball now turns his attention to the elements and the story of our relationship with matter. Rather than offer up a tour of the...

Mercator: the Man Who Mapped the Planet.(Book Review)
May 10, 2003... NICHOLAS CRANE Before 1568, navigation charts used by sailors didn't correctly account for the fact that the world is round. Gerard Mercator, born early in the 16th century to a cobbler in northern Europe, would be the man to solve the...

The Sense of Being Stared At: And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind.(Book Review)
May 10, 2003... RUPERT SHELDRAKE Many people from time to time have the feeling that someone's staring at them. Others feel impending doom. These phenomena and others such as telepathy are generally viewed as unworthy of scientific pursuit. Sheldrake...

The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs.(Book Review)
May 10, 2003... TRACY DISABATO-AUST This useful text is a combination of scholarly data, beautiful photographs of plants and gardens, and a healthy dose of practical wisdom and gardening tips. DiSabato-Aust provides a thoroughgoing lesson in design...

Bugs in the system. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 10, 2003... You state in "Spring Forward" (SN: 3/8/03, p. 152) that in the last century, the average global temperature has risen about 0.6[degrees]C. I suspect that most of the sensors in use today are not in the precise locations of thermometers 100...

Aw, nuts. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 10, 2003... "Tough Nut Is Cracked: Antibody treatment stifles peanut reactions" (SN: 3/15/03, p. 163) left me wondering. If the drug could help an allergic person eat up to 24 peanuts, it really isn't a complete cure, is it? I guess I'll just keep on...

Chew on this. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 10, 2003... Good grief, I can't believe this is a surprise that dinosaurs were cannibals ("Family Meal: Cannibal dinosaur known by its bones," SN: 4/5/03, p. 211). Frogs eat frogs. Rabbits eat their young. We can go on for quite a time enumerating mammals...

Ancient DNA enters humanity's heritage. (Stone Age Genetics).
May 17, 2003... Genetic material that Italian researchers extracted from the bones of European Stone Age Homo sapiens, sometimes called Cro-Magnons, bolsters the theory that people evolved independently of Neandertals, the team proposes. Fossils of two...

Probe could ride to Earth's core in a mass of molten iron. (Going Down?).
May 17, 2003... Blast a crack in Earth's crust, pour in a few thousand tons of rock-busting molten iron, and then toss in a grapefruit-size instrument designed to ride the plunging elevator of liquid metal to the planet's core. That scenario sounds like...

Working hypothesis: wing hit by debris. (Columbia Disaster).(cause of space shuttle Columbia accident)
May 17, 2003... The independent board investigating the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia last week presented its first detailed account of what might have caused the Feb. 1 disaster that killed all seven crew members. After 3 months of reviewing...

Children of sea see clearly underwater. (Gypsy Secret).(nomadic sea gypsies)
May 17, 2003... For hundreds of years, small nomadic tribes called sea gypsies have lived among the islands of Southeast Asia, earning fame for their swimming and diving skills. Sea-gypsy children regularly collect food such as clams and sea cucumbers off the...

Carbon coating keeps atoms in order. (Melt-Resistant Metals).(metal nanoclusters enclosed in carbon layers)
May 17, 2003... Scientists have long known that impurities and flaws in a metal's crystal structure can lower the material's melting point. In an unexpected twist, an international research team has dramatically boosted the melting points of metals by...

New drug could heal hard-to-mend fractures. (Bone Builder).
May 17, 2003... A synthetic compound can heal broken bones that are so damaged they don't knit on their own, a study in rats and dogs shows. Encouraged by the findings, scientists are already testing the compound in people. If the experimental drug--so far,...

Guam mystery disease from bat entree? (Troubling Treat).
May 17, 2003... A famous unsolved medical puzzle of last century--why a neurological disease spiked on Guam--may hinge on the local tradition of serving boiled bat. After World War II, doctors noticed that the Chamorro people of Guam experienced 100 times...

Diamond in the rough.(cyclohexamantane molecules)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... It takes a scanning tunneling microscope to view this crystal made of billions of [10.sup.-21]-carat diamondlike molecules. These newly discovered, naturally occurring molecules are called cyclohexamantane. For decades, researchers have...

Plastic electric: lining up the future of conducting polymers.
May 17, 2003... For the last century, technology has blossomed in an age of plastics. We drive cars with plastic parts, we wear eyeglasses with plastic lenses, and we sip mineral water from plastic bottles. Plastic cell phones connect us to family and friends,...

Patterns from nowhere: natural forces bring order to untouched ground.(Cover Story)
May 17, 2003... In remote regions of the Arctic, Antarctica, and the Australian outback, an explorer can trek across bleak, uninhabited landscapes only to suddenly stumble upon ground decorated with weird patterns. These lonely sites feature ankle-high and...

Supernovas, gamma-ray bursts: two of a kind? (Astronomy).(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Astronomers have discovered direct evidence that gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic events in the universe, are linked to supernovas, the explosive death of massive stars. On March 29, NASA's High-Energy Transient Explorer satellite...

Ancient wood points to Arctic greenhouse. (Paleobiology).(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Chemical analyses of wood that grew in an ancient arctic forest suggest that the air there once was about twice as humid as it is now. About 45 million years ago, forests of redwoods grew on what is now Axel Heiberg Island, a Maryland-size...

A black hole that goes the distance. (Astronomy).(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... The mass of the most distant black hole known has been measured, and it's a behemoth. The black hole lies some 13 billion light-years away and weighs the equivalent of 3 billion suns, researchers report in the April 10 Astrophysical Journal...

Fecal glow could improve meat safety. (Food And Nutrition).(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Workers who process animal carcasses might soon use a laser scanner to identify contaminated meat. Researchers at the Department of Agriculture and Iowa State University in Ames have devised a technology that exploits the unique fluorescent...

Sea burial for Canada's cod fisheries. (Science And Society).(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... The Canadian government has declared an end to cod fishing in nearly all of the country's Atlantic waters. The ban, announced April 24 by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the equivalent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, effectively...

Boosting the TB vaccine. (Immunology).(tuberculosis vaccine)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... The best available vaccine against tuberculosis isn't foolproof. The so-called bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine is a live but disabled form of the tuberculosis bacterium itself, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Unfortunately, the vaccine...

Drug smugglers leave cellular tracks. (Chemistry).(using nanotechnology and micelles to develop medicines)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... Getting drug molecules to targets within cells is a challenge, especially when the therapeutic molecules aren't soluble or stable, or when they can be toxic to cells. To circumvent these problems, scientists are designing protective nanoscale...

Zeolites get an organic makeover. (Materials Science).(Brief Article)
May 17, 2003... The labyrinth of pores that characterize a family of inorganic crystals known as zeolites gives the crystals catalytic and adsorbent powers. The crystals, which occur in natural and synthetic forms, are used in refining petroleum, removing...

A Beginner's Guide to the Universe.(Book Review)
May 17, 2003... ANDREW CONWAY AND ROSIE COLEMAN An astronomer and an elementary school teacher team up to introduce youngsters to the marvels of space. A general introduction to the nature and components of the universe leads to an in-depth overview of our...

The New York Times Second Book Of Science Questions And Answers: 225 New, Intriguing and Just Plain Bizarre Inquiries into Everyday Scientific Mysteries.(Book Review)
May 17, 2003... C. CLAIBORNE RAY What makes the holes in Swiss cheese? Why do we have earwax? What would happen to you if you fell into a black hole? These are the questions that vex readers of The New York Times and are fielded each week by Ray. Here she...

The Riemann Hypothesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics.(Book Review)
May 17, 2003... KARL SABBAGH For nearly 150 years, mathematicians have puzzled over Bernard Riemann's hypothesis that there is a discernable pattern to the appearance of prime numbers in the infinite string of whole numbers. Some of the greatest minds...

Sleep and Rest in Animals.(Book Review)
May 17, 2003... CORINE LACRAMPE Snails do it during the day. Budgies do it at night. Crocodiles do it with their mouths open. Cranes do it standing on one leg. Parrotfish do it do it in natural sleeping bags. Of course, these are all methods that animals...

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.(Book Review)
May 17, 2003... MARY ROACH It's common knowledge that medical students routinely use corpses to further their studies, but as Roach discovered, cadavers benefit the living in myriad other ways. With a solid dose of wit yet reverence for her topic, Roach...

Super Senses.(and 'Wonderful Weather')(Book Review)
May 17, 2003... SHAR LEVINE AND LESLIE JOHNSTONE WONDERFUL WEATHER SHAR LEVINE AND LESLIE JOHNSTONE Clear explanations of basic scientific principles and simple experiments will satisfy young readers of both these books. With the help of an...

Got it backwards. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 17, 2003... I object to the glib use of the phrase "time reversal" in "On the Rebound" (SN: 3/15/03, p. 168). Time is a sequential history of events and is not reversible. What the researchers are accomplishing is a clever resequencing of events, roughly...

Come out fighting. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 17, 2003... Tyrannosaurus rex's environment may have provided sufficient carrion for the giant to survive as a scavenger ("Was T. rex just a big freeloader?" SN: 3/22/03, p. 190), and studies of its ratio of leg-muscle mass to body mass suggest that it...

Shell game. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 17, 2003... I feel compelled to respond to "At a Snail's Place: Rock climbing cuts mollusk diversity" (SN: 4/12/03, p. 228). No one can enter and leave the wilderness without a trace, whether on foot, bike, horse, all-terrain vehicle (ATV), skis,...

Project may slam China's biodiversity. (A Dam Shame?).(Three Gorges Dam's environmental effects)
May 24, 2003... When the Three Gorges Dam begins to impound the waters of the Yangtze River in south central China later this year, dozens of the mountains and other elevated areas upstream will become islands. If the ecological results of similar projects...

Lung surgery aids some emphysema patients. (Breathe Easier).
May 24, 2003... Surgery in which doctors remove diseased portions of the lungs clearly helps some people with emphysema, a new study finds. But the likelihood of benefit depends on the location of the damaged tissues and the patient's health going into...

Childhood chills give bees six left feet. (Bad Dancers).
May 24, 2003... Honeybees kept just a bit cool when young turn into lousy dancers. That's a serious problem for adult honeybees, explains Jurgen Tantz of the Universitat Wurzburg in Germany. When a worker bee comes home after finding food, she does a...

Learning to read evokes hemispheric trade-off. (Scripted Brains).
May 24, 2003... It seems that the brain takes sides in promoting the skills necessary for proficient reading. The extended process of learning to read elicits a hemispheric trade-off in which left-brain structures get increasingly tuned to...

Images hint at seasonal changes on distant planet. (Springtime on Neptune).
May 24, 2003... Belying its location in the deep freeze of the outer solar system, Neptune is anything but dormant. It sports giant storms and near-supersonic winds. Now, images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that this frigid ball of gas, which...