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News of the Week:

Depression Gets Doleful Diagnosis

Psychiatrists use a diagnosis criteria for major depression that arbitrarily overlook the continuum of symptoms of varying severity and duration.

Sources:

Kenneth S. Kendler
P.O. Box 980126
Richmond, VA 23298-0126

Gary J. Tucker
University of Washington
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
1959 Pacific Street
Post Office Box 356560
Seattle, WA 98195

Shock wave revives fading supernova ring

Eleven years after astronomers witnessed supernova 1987A, a shock wave from that cataclysm has begun ramming into a surrounding ring of gas.

Sources:

Robert P. Kirshner
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street
Mail Stop Code 19
Cambridge, MA 02138

Richard McCray
University of Colorado at Boulder
Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Campus Box 391
Boulder, CO 80309-0440

George Sonneborn
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics
Mail Stop Code 681
Greenbelt, MD 20771

Hermaphrodites duel for manhood

In unusually blatant sexual conflict, hermaphroditic marine flatworms fight genital duels to determine who plays the male role.

Sources:

Nicolaas K. Michiels
Max-Planck-Institut fur Verhaltensphysiologie
Seewiesen, Postfach 1564
D-82305 Starnberg
Germany

Leslie J. Newman
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History
MRC 163
Washington, DC 20560

Colon cancer treatment shows promise

A drug that inhibits production of fatty acids called prostaglandins prevents colon cancer in rats.

Sources:

Bandaru S. Reddy
American Health Foundation
One Dana Road
Valhalla, NY 10595

Viral protein pair divulges Ebola secrets

Studies of two proteins suggest how the deadly Ebola virus avoids the immune system and infects cells.

Sources:

Gary J. Nabel
University of Michigan
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Departments of Internal Medicine and Biological Chemistry
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Peptide nanotube acts as tunnel for ions

A tiny tube made from a stack of ring-shaped peptides allows small ions to pass from one side of a membrane to the other.

Sources:

M. Reza Ghadiri
Scripps Research Institute
Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology
La Jolla, CA 92037
Web site: http://www.scripps.edu/pub/ghadiri/html/nanotubes.html

Modern climate has roots in Early Devonian

New fossils show that deep-rooted land plants appeared at least 10 million years earlier than previously thought.

Sources:

Robert A. Berner
Yale University
Department of Geology and Geophysics
New Haven, CT 06520-8109

Jennifer M. Elick
University of Tennessee
Department of Geological Sciences
Knoxville, TN 37996-1410

William A. DiMichele
Smithsonian Institute
National Museum of Natural History
Paleobiology Department
MRC 121
Washington, DC 20560

As globe warms, hurricanes may speed up

Global warming may boost the intensity of the strongest hurricanes.

Sources:

Kerry A. Emanuel
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science
Cambridge, MA 02139

Thomas R. Knutson
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
Post Office Box 808
Princeton, NJ 07542

Christopher W. Landsea
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Hurricane Research Division
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149

Research Notes

Biology
Food snitches threaten rare dogs

African wild dogs burn more energy than predicted during a day, an insight that has forced scientists to rethink the energetics of chasing down dinner and worry about the dogs' loss of food to hyenas.

Sources:

Joshua Ginsberg
The Bronx Zoo
Wildlife Conservation Society
185th Street and Southern Boulevard
Bronx, NY 10460-1099

Martyn L. Gorman
University of Aberdeen
Department of Zoology
Tillydrone Avenue
Aberdeen AB24 2TZ
United Kingdom

What’s so sexy about a canary song?

The part of a male canary’s song that really excites females—a rapid-fire two-note trill—may be so difficult to produce that it gives clues about the physical condition of the singer.

Sources:

Eric Vallet
Universite Paris X-Nanterre
Laboratorie de Psychophysiologie et d’Ethologie
200 Avenue de la Republique
92001 Nanterre Cedex
France

The promise of strung-out flies

Fruit flues exposed to crack cocaine exhibit behavioral responses similar to those displayed by crack-addled humans.

Sources:

Jay Hirsh
University of Virginia
Department of Biology
Charlottesville, VA 22903

Toward more efficient cloning

Scientists have used a vastly more efficient method of cloning to produce two identical calves.

Sources:

James Robl
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Paige Laboratories
Amherst, MA 01003

Steven Stice
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Paige Laboratories
Amherst, MA 01003

Food & Nutrition
B vitamins bestow heartfelt benefits

Consuming folate and vitamin B₆ at levels well in excess of the recommended daily allowance may lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Sources:

Eric B. Rimm
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Nutrition
665 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115

Microwaves bedevil a B vitamin

Prolonged microwave cooking can inactivate much of the vitamin B₁₂ in foods.

Sources:

Fumio Watanabe
Kochi Women’s University
Department of Food and Nutrition
Kochi 780
Japan

Behavior
Lying eyes, insightful hands

In the human brain, one neural system perceives the defining qualities of objects whereas another directs visual control of skilled actions.

Sources:

Melvyn A. Goodale
University of Western Ontario
Department of Psychology
London, Ontario N6A 5C2
Canada

Angela M. Haffenden
University of Western Ontario
Department of Psychology
London, Ontario N6A 5C2
Canada

Articles:

Crystal Clear
X-ray snapshots illuminate how enzymes stitch together DNA

Detailed pictures of DNA polymerase show how these enzymes create new DNA strands.

Sources:

Tom Ellenberger
Harvard Medical School
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
240 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115

Lorena S. Beese
Duke University Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
Post Office Box 3711
Durham, NC 27710

The Mush Zone
A slurpy layer lurks deep inside the planet

Patches of partially molten rock at the bottom of Earth’s mantle may profoundly influence conditions at the planet’s surface.

Sources:

Edward J. Garnero
University of California, Santa Cruz
Earth Sciences
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Donald V. Helmberger
California Institute of Technology
Seismological Laboratory
Mail Stop Code 252-21
1200 East California Boulevard
Pasadena, CA 91125

Thorne Lay
University of California, Santa Cruz
Earth Sciences
156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Quentin Williams
University of California, Santa Cruz
Earth Sciences
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

References

Table of Contents - 2/14/98

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