May 18th, 2002
issue

  • Baby Facial: Infants monkey with face recognition
    Between ages 6 months and 9 months, babies apparently lose the ability to discriminate between the faces of individuals in different animal species and start to develop an expertise in discerning human faces. (p. 307)
  • Amyloid Buster? New drug hinders Alzheimer's protein
    By disabling a dementia-linked protein, a synthetic drug is showing a tantalizing capacity to interfere with the formation of waxy amyloid deposits like those that accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. (p. 307)
  • Shelter from Space Storms: Energy rebounds from Earth
    NASA satellite observations show that Earth's outer atmosphere interacts dramatically with the solar wind and shields the planet from it. (p. 308)
  • Wholesome Grains: Insulin effects may explain healthful diet
    Overweight people who eat whole grains rather than refined ones appear better equipped to manage their blood-sugar concentrations with minimal production of the hormone insulin, which could help explain why a diet rich in whole grains appears to guard against type II diabetes and heart disease. (p. 308)
  • Live Tour: Joystick journeys reveal tumor interiors
    A new holographic technique may someday enable doctors to skip certain biopsies and choose instead to take video excursions inside suspicious growths in skin or internal body linings. (p. 309)
  • D-fending the Colon: Bile component triggers vitamin D receptor
    The protein that enables cells to respond to vitamin D also helps the gastrointestinal tract protect itself from an especially dangerous acid in bile. (p. 309)
  • Gator Feelings: Tough faces, more sensitive than ours
    Alligator and crocodile faces carry pressure receptors so responsive that they can detect ripples on the water's surface from a single falling drop. (p. 310)
  • A Model Mouse
    Mice with symptoms similar to rheumatoid arthritis may illuminate the puzzling disorder. (p. 312)
  • Openings to the Underworld
    Archaeological finds indicate that ancient groups in Mexico and Central America, including the Maya, held beliefs about a sacred landscape that focused on natural and human-made caves as sites of important ritual activities and burials. (p. 314)
  • Honey may pose hidden toxic risk
    Many honeys may contain potentially toxic traces of potent liver-damaging compounds produced naturally by a broad range of flowering plants. (p. 317)
  • Hard bodies pair off
    About one out of every eight asteroids traveling near Earth has a rocky companion. (p. 317)
  • Anthrax genomes compared for terrorism clues
    Investigators seeking clues to last fall's anthrax attack have analyzed the genome of the anthrax bacterium. (p. 317)
  • Spice component versus cancer cells
    Curcumin, a compound in the spice turmeric, teams up with an immune-system protein to kill prostate cancer cells in a new laboratory study. (p. 317)
  • In depression, the placebo also rises
    In a small group of depressed patients, those whose condition improved after taking placebo pills for 6 weeks displayed many of the same brain changes observed in people who benefited from an antidepressant drug. (p. 318)
  • Beating two infections with one vaccine
    Identifying key similarities between related viruses could enable researchers to coax some vaccines to do double duty. (p. 318)
  • Liquid could aid vaccine storage and use
    A new medium for vaccines could remove the need to either refrigerate or rehydrate vaccines, hurdles that impede immunization campaigns in poor countries. (p. 318)
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