USA TODAY articles from June 2006

USA TODAY archives from June 2006

Pigs to replace fish for heart-healthy acids?(Heart Disease)
June 1, 2006... Scientists report they have created pigs that produce omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to improve heart function and help reduce the risks for heart disease. These are the first cloned, transgenic livestock in the world that can make the...

Preserving oceans may modify temperatures.(Climate)
June 1, 2006... Some surveys have found that as many as 70% of Americans agree that global warming is a real phenomenon and more than half attribute it to human activity. Over 90% indicate they would modify their lives to combat the greenhouse effect if they...

Hungry worms may provide vital clues.(Eating Disorders)
June 1, 2006... A worm the size of a pinhead is helping researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, study eating disorders and unravel the mechanisms of hunger. Scientists have found a series of biochemical reactions that...

Pets may serve as disease watchdogs.(Zoonotic Illnesses)
June 1, 2006... A national surveillance network that uses the medical records of pets could help prepare for a wide variety of emerging disease threats to humans and animals, including avian influenza, according to veterinary scientists at Purdue University,...

Mudflows initiated by natural processes.(SCIENCE SCENE)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Mudflows initiated by natural processes at old, inactive volcanoes are some of the most lethal geologic phenomena and contributed to the tragic mudslide in Guinsaugon, Philippines, explains Michael F. Sheridan, professor of geology at the...

Between 2010-30.(SCIENCE SCENE)(scientists predict age of death will rise by 20 years)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Between 2010-30, the modal, or most common, age of death will rise by 20 years if anti-aging therapies come into widespread use, maintains biologist Shripad Tuljapurkar of Stanford (Calif.) University. This increase is five times faster than...

Where there's smoke.(SCIENCE SCENE)(the "Cigar" galaxy)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Where there's smoke, there's fire--even in outer space. An infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a burning hot galaxy--called Messier 82 or the "Cigar" galaxy--whose fiery stars appear to be blowing out giant billows of...

The average bird watcher.(SCIENCE SCENE)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The average bird watcher is 49 years old with a better-than-average education and income level; 54% are female and 46% male; while 72% are married, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C. People spend between...

Genetically designed grapes.(SCIENCE SCENE)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Genetically designed grapes with elevated levels of vitamin C may be more than wishful thinking, say scientists at the University of Adelaide, Australia, who recently identified an enzyme in grapes that helps convert vitamin C into tartaric...

Hatchery-reared steelhead trout.(SCIENCE SCENE)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Hatchery-reared steelhead trout show increased growth of some parts of the brain when small stones are scattered on the bottom of their tank, relates a study from the University of California, Davis. The brains of those young fish are closer to...

Cockroaches, birds, rabbits, and humans.(SCIENCE SCENE)(sexual behavior)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Cockroaches, birds, rabbits, and humans all reproduce sexually. For two centuries, though, biologists have wondered why sexual reproduction is so common, since it poses serious risks. Actually, sexual reproduction may perpetuate itself by...

A new, ultra-fast chemical-analysis tool.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... A new, ultra-fast chemical-analysis tool--desorption electrospray ionization--developed by researchers at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., has numerous promising uses for detecting everything from cancer in the liver to explosives...

Saturn's moon muscles up on methane.
June 1, 2006... The mystery of why the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, is rich in methane may have been solved by an international team of planetary scientists, led by France's Gabriel Tobie and Christophe Sotin of the University of Nantes. Methane,...

Does Mars have soggy sand?
June 1, 2006... Cracks and fins in the sand in an American desert look very similar to features seen on Mars and may indicate the recent presence of water at the surface, according to a study by researcher Gret Chavdarian and associate professor of geology...

When is a planet really a planet?
June 1, 2006... The recent sighting of a distant body--larger than Pluto and possessing moons--opens the prospect of yet more such objects being discovered and begs the question: How do we define a planet? Some astronomers have been calling for the planet...

Analyzing chemical samples from space.
June 1, 2006... A new test case that could be used for evaluating extraterrestrial samples for evidence of life has been identified by chemical engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. It ultimately may allow the use of simpler analytical...

Uranus' new ring has scientists seeing blue.
June 1, 2006... Blue may be a color that most of us can feel, but the solar system's seventh planet is feeling it, too--in its recently discovered outermost ring, making it just the second known blue ring in the solar system. Saturn's E ring is the only...

Do plants really slow global warming?(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Plants apparently do much less than previously thought to counteract global warming, according to research from Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. It appears that they are limited in this capacity because of their dependence on nitrogen...

Americans express ecological concerns.(surveys)
June 1, 2006... Most Americans are pessimistic about the state of the environment and want action taken to improve its health, according to a national survey conducted by the Woods Institute for the Environment at the University of Stanford (Calif.). ...

Sea level rise offset by volcanoes.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Ocean temperatures may have risen even higher during the last century if it were not for volcanoes that spewed ashes and aerosols into the upper atmosphere. Moreover, these eruptions offset a large percentage of sea level rise caused by humans,...

Warming temperatures endanger coastlines.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The Earth's warming temperatures are on track to melt the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets sooner than previously thought and ultimately could lead to a global sea level rise of perhaps 20 feet, according to the National Center for...

Severe drought may induce wildfires.
June 1, 2006... Persistently hot, dry weather in the Central and Southern Plains and the Southeast this summer will trigger far-reaching effects across the nation, predict meteorologists at AccuWeather.com, State College, Pa. A massive high-pressure...

Dry season produces biggest growth spurt.(tropical rain forests)
June 1, 2006... The Amazon rain forest puts on its biggest growth spurt during the dry season, show satellite images provided by NASA. "Most of the vegetation around the world follows a general pattern in which plants get green and lush during the rainy season...

Pioneering exhibit features real human bodies.
June 1, 2006... Science museum visitors will be able to experience the human body in all its elegance and complexity by viewing real human bodies that have been preserved through a remarkable process called plastination in the series of exhibitions, "Body...

Earthquake could flatten Istanbul.
June 1, 2006... A major earthquake is likely to strike Istanbul over the next 30 years, killing thousands of people and collapsing as many as 50,000 buildings because of vulnerable construction, cautions a team of engineers and scientists who recommend...

Will major earthquake strike Midwest?
June 1, 2006... On Dec. 16, 1811, residents of New Madrid, Mo., were wrested from sleep by violent shaking and a deafening roar. A short time later, church bells in Boston--more than 1,000 miles away--began to ring. It was the first of three massive...

Frisco's "Big One" 100 years later.
June 1, 2006... A century after the famous 1906 earthquake, geophysicists at Stanford (Calif.) University have revisited San Francisco's "Big One" and paint a new picture of a fault that ruptured faster, farther, and further than previously supposed. "Our...

Fisheries dumping almost 25% of catch.
June 1, 2006... For every five pounds of fish caught by U.S. commercial fisheries, more than one pound is dumped--dead, dying, and wasted, according to a study by Andrew Rosenberg, professor of marine biology at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, and a...

Coal may provide "green diesel" fuel.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... As U.S. oil reserves dwindle, some say the nation will have to rely on synthetic petroleum fuel made from its large stores of coal. A two-step chemical process augments a method of making cleaner-burning alternative fuel from coal and other...

3-D imaging looks inside boilers.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... A technique that records three-dimensional scans of the gases and solids that mix inside boilers and other industrial processing reactors has been invented by researchers at Ohio State University, Columbus. Scientists can use electrical...

Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination.
June 1, 2006... Could humanoid robots and vehicles that hover above ground, once limited only to the fantasy worlds of science fiction, become a reality? "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" explores the hi-tech gizmos depicted in the famous film...

Cancer more likely in older workers.
June 1, 2006... The ages at which workers are exposed to low doses of ionizing radiation apparently make a difference in whether they will develop cancer, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Scientists investigated deaths among...

Ultrasound and algae team up vs. mercury.
June 1, 2006... Ultrasound and algae can be used together as tools to clean mercury from contaminated sediment, according to a study by Ohio State University, Columbus. This research one day could lead to a ship-borne device that removes toxic metals from...

Interface system aids disabled artists.
June 1, 2006... Artists who have physical disabilities that prevent them from holding a paintbrush with their mouth, hands, feet, or head have a new communication tool that will help them get their ideas on canvas--the Artists' Interface System, developed by a...

Soil bacteria neutralize uranium.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Some bacteria found in the soil and subsurface can release phosphate that converts radioactive uranium contamination into an insoluble and immobile form, maintain scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Based on...

Bluebird aggression offers survival insight.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... In findings that may offer insight into how evolution operates, an evolutionary ecologist from Duke University, Durham, N.C., reports evidence that aggressive male Western bluebirds outcompete less aggressive males for preferred breeding...

How can children do math like adults?(Brain Waves)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Four-year-olds who still are developing numerical abilities show activity in the same brain region during numerical tasks as do math-adept adults, researchers from Duke University, Durham, N.C., have found. Their comparative brain scan studies...

Sniff of jasmine raises bowling scores.(Sense of Smell)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Sniffing the aroma of jasmine while bowling improved the scores of participants by 27%. according to a study by Alan N. Hirsch of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Chicago. While wearing jasmine-odorized surgical masks (as...

Sugar alternatives leave bitter taste.(Artificial Sweeteners)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The most important factor in what type of sweetener people prefer has little to do with how sweet it is. Rather, it more depends on other tastes, such as bitterness or sourness, report researchers from Ohio State University, Columbus. Food...

World's forests continue to shrink.(Ecology)
June 1, 2006... A HEALTHY PLANET needs healthy forests, urges staff researcher Elizabeth Mygatt of Earth Policy Institute, Washington, D.C. Thriving woodlands regulate the water cycle and stabilize soils. They help moderate climate by soaking up and storing...