More Stories from the November 23, 2002 issue
- Health & Medicine
Gene may keep breast cancer at bay
Scientists have identified a gene that seems to protect against some common breast cancers.
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Mutant mice resist morphine’s appeal
A protein on nerve cells appears to be the key to developing morphine addiction.
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Scanning a brain that’s out of tune
Scientists have scanned the brain of a man who had great difficulty playing a tune and showed that his brain doesn't react normally to music.
- Health & Medicine
Slow brain repair seen in Huntington’s
In people with Huntington's disease, the brain tries to replace dying nerve cells.
- Health & Medicine
Gene change linked to poor memory
A subtle change in a gene encoding a brain chemical may give some people better memory skills than others.
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Life or Death: Immune genes determine outcome of strep infection
Subtle variations among people's immune genes may largely account for radically different outcomes when people get a strep infection.
- Planetary Science
Leapin’ Lava! Volcanic eruption on Io breaks the record
Pointing a ground-based telescope at Jupiter's moon Io, astronomers have recorded the most powerful volcano ever observed in the solar system.
- Earth
Bursting in Air: Satellites tally small asteroid hits
On average, a small asteroid slams into Earth's atmosphere and explodes with the energy of 1,000 Hiroshima-size blasts once every thousand years or so, a rate that is less than one-third as high as scientists previously supposed.
- Health & Medicine
Virus Stopper: Vaccine could prevent most cervical cancers
A vaccine fashioned from a protein found on human papillomavirus-16 protects women from long-term viral infections that can lead to cervical cancer.
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Three Dog Eves: Canine diaspora from East Asia to Americas
Genetic studies have moved the origins of dog domestication from the Middle East to East Asia and suggest that the first people to venture into the Americas brought their dogs with them.
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Dog Sense: Domestication gave canines innate insight into human gestures
Dogs may have acquired an innate ability to understand human body language after they were domesticated.
- Physics
Cold War Conductor: Ultracold plutonium compound shows no resistance
Researchers studying the crystalline properties of radioactive plutonium have discovered the first plutonium-based superconductor.
- Earth
Arsenic Agriculture? Irrigation may worsen Bangladesh’s woes
Researchers investigating an unfolding massive epidemic of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh say they have evidence that local irrigation practices may be contributing to the problem.
- Earth
Rural living may hobble sperm
An epidemiological study provides evidence that sperm concentrations in men residing in rural areas are significantly lower than those of men living in urban centers.
- Anthropology
Care-Worn Fossils
A nearly toothless fossil jaw found in France has reignited scientific debate over whether the skeletal remains of physically disabled individuals show that our Stone Age ancestors provided life-saving care to the ill and infirm.
- Chemistry
Photography at a Crossroads
Researchers are racing to understand the chemical processes used during the past 2 centuries to make photographs before digital-imaging techniques take over completely.
