More Stories from the July 13, 2002 issue
- Health & Medicine
Watermelon red means lycopene rich
Watermelon is a far better source of the carotenoid lycopene than tomatoes are and at least as well absorbed by the body.
- Materials Science
Molecular template makes nanoscale helix
Using ribbons made of organic molecules as minuscule templates, researchers have coaxed a semiconductor material into tiny helical coils.
- Earth
Tomato compound repels mosquitos
New insect repellents based on a compound that contributes to the smell of crushed tomato leaves are under development.
- Health & Medicine
Ginseng extract halts diabetes in mice
Extracts from the berry of the American ginseng plant counter obesity and insulin resistance in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Dynamite discovery on nitroglycerin
Scientists have found a long-sought enzyme that may be behind nitroglycerin's dilation of blood vessels.
- Paleontology
Fossil leaves yield extinction clues
Analyses of fossil leaves provide more evidence that the mass extinctions that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago were sudden and probably brought about by an extraterrestrial impact.
- Planetary Science
Pristine fragments of asteroid breakup
Planetary scientists have for the first time precisely dated a collision that smashed an asteroid into fragments.
- Anthropology
Evolution’s Surprise: Fossil find uproots our early ancestors
Researchers announced the discovery of a nearly complete fossil skull, along with jaw fragments and isolated teeth, from the earliest known member of the human evolutionary family, which lived in central Africa between 7 million and 6 million years ago.
- Animals
Pesticides Mess with Immunity: Double whammy promotes frog deformities
Agricultural pollutants may conspire with parasites to cause the epidemic of limb deformity that's sweeping through North America's frog populations.
- Materials Science
Healing Wounds: Interactive dressing speeds the process
A new, easily prepared hydrogel material promotes more rapid wound healing in laboratory animals than do conventional dressings.
- Animals
Altruistic Sperm: Mouse gametes team up to power one winner
The sperm of wood mice hook together by the thousands to form high-speed teams racing toward an egg, even though only one of the pack will get the prize.
- Tech
Voltage from the Bottom of the Sea: Ooze-dwelling microbes can power electronics
Some types of bacteria living in seafloor mud can generate enough electricity to power small electronic devices.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine for All? Math model supports mass smallpox inoculation
Vaccinating an entire city in response to a smallpox terrorist attack would save thousands more lives than would quarantining infected people and vaccinating anyone they contacted.
- Health & Medicine
Do-It-Yourself: Virus recreated from synthetic DNA
In an experiment with implications for bioterrorism, scientists have used poliovirus' widely known genetic sequence to synthesize that virus from DNA and other chemicals.
- Astronomy
X-ray observatory captures a rare supernova
Astronomers have obtained the first portrait of X-ray emission from a rare, so-called Ic supernova.
- Astronomy
Let There Be Spin
X-ray outbursts from two different pairs of stars in our Milky Way are providing clues about how the most rapidly rotating stars in the universe got their spin.
- Chemistry
Buckymedicine
Scientists are turning carbon-cage molecules called fullerenes into drug candidates and medical diagnostic tools.
