Science News articles from May 2009

Science News archives from May 2009

With science at its best, answers raise questions.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
May 9, 2009... Birds and bees, ants and plants are among the most familiar--and most well-studied scientifically--life-forms on the planet. You'd think that if you wanted to know something about how any of them work, you'd go look it up in a book (excuse me,...

Scientific observations.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Professor Bennett G. Galef Jr.)(Quotation)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... "As I have told my students... I view a life in science as a marathon, not as a sprint. My goal is to ask simple questions arising from clearly stated hypotheses, to use both simple experimental designs and transparent statistical analyses, to...

Science past: from the issue of May 9, 1959.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(global warming forecast)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... FORECAST 25% INCREASE IN AIR'S CARBON DIOXIDE--A 25% increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere during the 150-year period ending in 2000 A.D. has been forecast. Dr. Bert Bolin of the University of Stockholm in Sweden...

Science future.(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(fairs; contests)(Brief article)(Calendar)
May 9, 2009... May 10 Winners of the "Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest" announced in Naples, Fla. View entries at illusioncontest. neuralcorrelate.com May 10-15 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for students in grades...

Earth.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(iron in water)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... Iron in water seeping from an underground ecosystem takes on a rusty hue as it oxidizes (below). Surprisingly hearty life forms use the iron to breathe in their long-isolated, dark and salty home. See "Antarctic ecosystem holds unusual...

Body & brain.(SN Online: www.sciencenews.org)(urine test may predict lung cancer risk)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... High levels of tobacco-related compounds that show up in urine could identify which cigarette smokers are most likely to develop lung cancer. Measurements also show how deeply smokers puff and how long they inhale. See "A urine test may predict...

Introducing....(SCIENCE NOTEBOOK)(Tabuina varirata the jumping spider)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... Not only is this jumping spider a new species, it's also unusual enough to justify naming a new genus. Called Tabuina varirata, the species belongs on one of the sparser, more isolated branches of the spider family tree, reports Wayne Maddison...

Landscaper's darling hybridizes into an environmental nuisance: variation underlies the Callery pear tree's transformation.(STORY ONE)
May 9, 2009... As in other tales of nice kids gone wrong, the Callery pear tree's troubles can be traced to a gang of new pals, a new genetic analysis suggests. Imported from China, the Callery pear won U.S. hearts and yards coast to coast for its early...

Back story: costs of invasives.(IN THE NEWS)(Table)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... Back Story | COSTS OF INVASIVES The Gallery pear tree is among some 50,000 foreign species of all sorts that have moved into the United States, some intentionally, some not. Europe's latest count reveals at least 10,000. A small...

Brash birds get nabbed more often: personality may affect which flycatchers end up in the lab.(Life)
May 9, 2009... Who knows whether birds have their own snarky personality jokes. But researchers now say collared flycatchers with a dashing and curious character are especially likely to get caught in researchers' traps. The trappable birds readily...

Arthropods came ashore in shells: gear may have kept gills wet during transition onto land.(Life)
May 9, 2009... Some of the first creatures to leave the ocean and venture onto land may have done so by carrying a bit of the sea with them. Fossil trackways left on ancient tidal flats 500 million years ago hint that some ocean-dwelling arthropods, like...

Oddities in rod cells may help with night sight: nocturnal mammals invert retinal DNA arrangement.(Life)
May 9, 2009... Mice and cats don't usually agree, but both animals have the same bright idea about night vision. Cats, rats, mice and other nocturnal mammals arrange DNA in some eye cells to form miniature lenses that help focus light, a new study shows. ...

Lizards bask for more than warmth.(Life)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... A lounging lizard might not bask just for warmth--it may be getting a much-needed hit of vitamin D. A new study reports that panther chameleons (one shown) set their sunbathing schedule depending on how much vitamin D they need. The new work,...

Other, friendly fat present in adult humans: brown fat could help keep people warm and slender.(Body & Brain)
May 9, 2009... In the ongoing battle of the bulge, maybe it is time to fight fat with fat. Three studies in the April 9 New England Journal of Medicine show that some adult humans have brown fat, an energy-burning type of fat previously thought to be found...

Acid reflux link to asthma in doubt: heartburn drugs may not help patients with severe attacks.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... Taking heartburn drugs doesn't reduce severe attacks among asthma patients, researchers report in the April 9 New England Journal of Medicine. The findings cast doubt on a long-held assumption that even unnoticed acid reflux exacerbates asthma....

Hypoglycemia linked to dementia: severe low blood sugar episodes might heighten risk later.(Body & Brain)
May 9, 2009... A single episode of low blood sugar severe enough to require prompt medical attention increases a person's risk of developing dementia in old age, a study in people with diabetes suggests. More than one bout of hypoglycemia seems to heighten...

Undetectable sensor would still see: new cloaking method may allow signals to be sent, received.(Matter & Energy)
May 9, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cell phones, radio receivers and GPS devices may one day go incognito. In a paper to appear in Physical Review Letters, Nader Engheta and Andrea Alu propose a new cloaking method that would cancel out electromagnetic...

Double-laser approach leads to one thin line: erasing, stenciling offer new nanolithography techniques.(Matter & Energy)
May 9, 2009... Michelangelo couldn't have chiseled David's features with the edge of a backhoe. But just such a challenge faces scientists working in the infinitesimally small world of nanolithography, the ultratiny writing used to make computer chips, solar...

Nanoclusters battle second law: in simulations, collisions can increase velocity, reduce entropy.(Matter & Energy)
May 9, 2009... Nobody's above the law. But tiny clusters of colliding atoms may duck below the second law of thermodynamics. In simulations, researchers in Japan found that in rare cases, tiny clusters of atoms ricochet off each other faster than their...

Drop in oceanic nickel may have set stage for atmospheric oxygen: banded iron formations point to changes in early seawater.(Earth)
May 9, 2009... A decrease in the amount of dissolved nickel in ocean waters beginning 2.7 billion years ago could have stifled methane-producing bacteria and set the scene for oxidation of the Earth's atmosphere, researchers report in the April 9 Nature. ...

Less, thinner Arctic ice.(Earth)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The spring melting of the Arctic Ocean's ice cap has already begun, and data suggest that the ice is more vulnerable than ever: The ocean area covered by ice is one of the lowest ever...

Solar flares now trackable in 3-D: craft positioning improves imaging of mass ejections.(Atom & Cosmos)(Brief article)
May 9, 2009... WASHINGTON -- For the first time, scientists can accurately assess the size, shape and speed of massive flares as they leave the sun, allowing better estimates of when the flares might strike Earth and cause widespread electrical disruptions....

Swarm savvy: how bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions.
May 9, 2009... This is a phone conversation, so if Tom Seeley rolls his eyes, that's his business. He's a distinguished behavioral biologist, full professor at Cornell University, member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and so on. Yet he takes it...

The genetic dimension of height and health: it may be no tall tale: a few inches taller or shorter could signal a risk for some diseases.
May 9, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From Danny Devito to Yao Ming, the world is filled with short people and tall people and everyone in between. While factors such as nutrition influence height differences, much of that variation depends on genes....

Living physics: from green leaves to bird brains, biological systems may exploit quantum phenomena.
May 9, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Until a century or so ago, nobody had any idea that the re even was such a thing as quantum physics. But while humans operated for millennia in quantum darkness, it seems that plants, bacteria and birds may have been...

Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution.(Book review)
May 9, 2009... Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution Adrian Desmond and James Moore While forming his theory of common descent, Charles Darwin peered beyond his observations of ants, barnacles and...

Bookshelf.(Nanoscale: Visualizing an Invisible World, The Fifth Postulate: How Unraveling a Two-Thousand-Year-Old Mystery Unraveled the Universe and Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 9, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nanoscale: Visualizing an Invisible World Kenneth S. Deffeyes and Stephen E. Deffeyes Illustrations reveal the nanoscale world in rich detail. MIT, 2009, 133 p., $21.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Fifth...

Don't dismiss Lamarck.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
May 9, 2009... Your January 31 special birthday edition on Darwin (SN: 1/31/09, p. 17) was excellent, but I believe that science has allowed Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's contributions to be overshadowed by Darwin's. The change that can occur to an organism's...

Charles Niederriter: at Nobel Conference, scientists and public converse.(COMMENT)(Interview)
May 9, 2009... Physics professor Charles Niederriter of Gustavus Adolphus College directs the Nobel Conference, an annual forum where scientists and the public discuss a contemporary scientific topic. Held every year at Gustavus Adolphus, in Saint Peter,...