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Retro ReptileNovember 8, 1997 | Volume 152 | Number 19 Cover: The ancient and unusual reptiles known as tuatara live only on small islands off New Zealand. A relocation experiment involving tuatara from tiny North Border Island (with lighthouse in background) in Cook Strait is expanding the numbers and territory of an animal that once roamed along side dinosaurs. (Composite image from photos by Brett Robertson, Victoria University of Wellington) |
Features:
TimeLine
Food for Thought
Tighter controls on greenhouse gas emissions may save hundreds of thousands of lives annually by cutting toxic exposures to more conventional pollutants.
Gamma-ray glow bathes Milky Way
A mysterious halo of gamma rays, not associated with any known celestial object, extends thousands of light-years from the core of the Milky Way.
Researchers have synthesized a molecular rectifier, in which electric current flows more easily from one side of the molecule to the other than in the reverse direction.
A new therapy for schizophrenia, which teaches individuals how to cope with stress and function socially, helps patients who are stable enough to live with their families.
Obesity poses cancer risk for older women
An extensive survey finds a strong link between obesity and breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
SOHO craft helps solve a solar mystery
Satellite observations reveal that the visible solar surface is carpeted with tens of thousands of magnetic field bundles that loop upward into the corona and may account for its high temperature.
Mighty mouths: How whales keep the heat
An array of heat-exchanging veins and arteries in their massive tongues enable gray whales to conserve heat.
Climate Protection Saves Lives Now
One-way molecules channel electric current
New schizophrenia therapy shows promise
Research Notes:
Behavior
AA's motivated benefits
Drug abuse treatment based on the 12-step, self-help model seems to work for much the same reasons as other types of treatment, such as giving confidence in one's ability to resist drug use in various social situations.
Getting a read on the brain
Language areas in the brain work with additional neural regions to foster understanding of written sentences. Biology
Hot stuff: A receptor for spicy foods
The cell protein that responds to capsaicin, the spicy agent in hot peppers, also acts as a heat sensor.
New genes debut on the Y chromosome
Investigators have discovered a dozen new genes on the Y chromosome, ones likely to contribute to male fertility or essential cellular duties.
Just do it (but only if you want to)
Unlike healthful, voluntary workouts, compulsory exercise appears to suppress the immune system.
What do platypuses dream of?
The platypus experiences REM sleep, challenging theories that this type of slumber evolved relatively recently.
Thanks, Ma, my brain needed that
Infant mice deprived of their mother's attention for a single day experience more brain cell death than is normal during development. Physics
Ringing up a coffee stain
Capillary flow while the liquid evaporates within a coffee droplet spilled on a surface leads to a characteristic ring of powdery residue.
Chemical analysis with atom tweezers
Scanning tunneling microscopy combined with mass spectrometry allows identification of atoms at particular positions on a surface.
Articles:
Return of the Tuatara
A relict from the age of dinosaurs gets a human assist A colony of the rare, lizardlike tuatara is being reestablished on an island off New Zealand. Competing technologies for downsizing the transistor To create sufficiently small features on an integrated-circuit chip, the semiconductor industry must develop advanced lithography methods that are viable on the factory floor.
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