Science News is about to pause briefly before presenting itself to you in a new form, both in print and online. (p. 227)

Scientists are zeroing in on alligator blood proteins that show promise for fighting disease-causing microbes. (p. 228)

Inflammatory genes create a signature for bipolar disorder in some people. (p. 228)

Mumps infected more than 6,500 people in the United States in 2006, the largest outbreak in 20 years. (p. 229)

After as many as 16 years, nerve cells transplanted into the brains of Parkinson's patients still thrive, but some show signs of acquiring the disease. (p. 229)

Element 114 should be chemically similar to lead, but controversial experimental data shows it behaves more like a noble gas, potentially subverting the periodic table's structure. (p. 230)

Contrary to popular belief, species of salamanders, birds, beetles and fish prefer to mate with close kin. (p. 232)

Biologists dream of the day when they could engineer crops to make fertilizer out of the nitrogen in the air. (p. 235)

Bats turn out to be overlooked but significant eaters of insects, pests and other arthropods on shade-grown coffee farms and in tropical forests. (p. 237)

The discovery of a 4,000-year-old gold necklace in Peru suggests that social elites and economic growth appeared in a surprisingly simple society. (p. 237)

Some conservationists recommend creating marine parks in areas most likely to survive climate change. (p. 238)

Astronomers say they have solved a puzzle about the most energetic particles that smash into Earth. (p. 238)

An unusual layer of rock found along Britain's northwestern coast formed from the debris thrown out of a crater when a meteorite struck nearby more than 1 billion years ago. (p. 238)

(p. 239)