More Stories from the May 27, 2000 issue
- Astronomy
Newfound Galaxy Goes the Distance
Astronomers have discovered a galaxy so remote that the light reaching Earth left the body some 13.6 billion years ago, making it the most distant object ever detected.
- Health & Medicine
Salt trial provokes DASH of skepticism
Though a new study finds that dramatic salt restriction can lower blood pressure, even among people without hypertension, some critics challenge its value in setting new dietary guidelines for all adults.
- Animals
The whole beehive gets a fever…
When bee larvae are fighting off disease, the nest temperature rises, so the whole hive gets a fever.
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Popularity of germ fighter raises concern
The growing use of the antiseptic triclosan in products ranging from mouthwash to cutting boards and hunting clothes may create bacteria resistant to antibiotic drugs.
- Health & Medicine
New inner ear hair cells grow in rat tissue
Using a gene known to control hair-cell growth, researchers have grown hair cells in tissue taken from newborn rats' cochleas, raising hopes that inner ear damage may someday be reversible.
- Earth
Warm band may have girdled snowball Earth
A swath a liquid ocean may have hugged the planet's midriff even during the most frigid global climatic episodes between 800 million and 600 million years ago, allowing life to survive.
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Attachment disorder draws closer look
A substantial minority of children exposed to severe deprivation in institutions as infants can't form close relationships, a condition for which there is no established treatment.
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Invader ants win by losing diversity
The Argentine ants that are trouncing U.S. species derive much of their takeover power, oddly enough, from losing genetic diversity.
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Dolphins bray when chasing down a fish
The first high-resolution analysis of which dolphin is making which sound suggests that hunters blurt out a low-frequency, donkeylike sound that may startle prey into freezing for an instant or attract other dolphins.
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Spider real estate wars: Wake up early
Big spiders in a colony get prime real estate day after day by spinning webs early.
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Extended test for bipolar drugs
A long-term study finds some advantages for patients with manic-depressive illness taking an anticonvulsant drug, although placebos also have positive effects on this ailment.
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Emotional gain after verbal loss
Brain-damaged people who have lost much of their ability to understand spoken sentences are better than healthy folks at picking up emotions that others are trying to conceal.
- Computing
A loosely woven Web
The World Wide Web is less like a network of heavily interconnected superhighways and more like a jungle of one-way streets often leading to dead ends.
- Computing
‘Love bug’ lessons
In early May, the malicious ILOVEYOU computer virus shut down hundreds of thousands of computers and caused several billion dollars in damage.
- Computing
Software’s beginnings
The earliest known use of the term software to describe computer programs dates back to 1958.
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Building Blocks of Talk
When babies babble, they may say a lot about speech.
