More Stories from the November 8, 2003 issue
- Earth
Seals’ meals, plastic pieces and all
Bite-size pieces of plastic chipped from wave-battered consumer products work their way up marine food chains, suggests a study of fur seals in Australia.
- Planetary Science
Bone-dry Mars?
The presence of large amounts of olivine, a mineral that undergoes rapid chemical transformation when exposed to liquid water, argues against ancient oceans or lakes on Mars.
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Underwater balancing act
Researchers have identified a gene that influences the growth of crystals in the inner ears of zebrafish and found that modifying this gene can cause the fish to lose their sense of gravity.
- Earth
POPs treaty enacted
A new United Nations treaty that seeks to phase down or eliminate production and use of 16 persistent, toxic pollutants has gone into effect.
- Earth
Pollutants shape baby-gator gonads
The same pollutants that appear to shorten the length of a grown-alligator's phallus actually lead to this organ's lengthening in baby gators.
- Earth
Sewage linked to fish-gender quirks
Releases from sewage treatment plants appear to impair reproductive tissues in fish.
- Earth
UV-pollutant combo hits tadpoles hard
Coincident exposure to ultraviolet light and an estrogen-mimicking pollutant severely jeopardized the chance a tadpole would reach adulthood.
- Health & Medicine
Soy compounds thwart estrogen
Soy-stress compound interferes with estrogen activity, possibly pointing the way to a new breast-cancer drug.
- Earth
Cast-Iron Foot: Undersea snail has mineral armor
An as-yet-unnamed species of snail living around hydrothermal vents deep beneath the Indian Ocean bears a suit of armor forged from the minerals dissolved in the hot fluids that spew from its seafloor environment.
- Astronomy
Hot and Heavy Star Birth: Young cosmos delivers massive stars
Aided by a gravitational zoom lens, astronomers have discovered the hottest, brightest, and most crowded star-forming region ever observed.
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Getting Back to Normal: Protein enables the liver to regenerate quickly
A protein called stem cell factor enables the liver to regenerate and may even protect people from acute liver failure.
- Earth
Frosty Florida: Spread of agriculture may promote freezes
Planting crops in south Florida may have increased the risk of the freezes farmers hoped to avoid.
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Forgetting to Remember: Emotion robs memory while reviving it
A common biological mechanism may boost memory for emotional events and block recall for what happened just before those events occurred, at least over the short run.
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Calcium Makes Germs Cluster: Ion dilution leads cholera bacteria to disperse
A protein on the surface of cholera-causing bacteria enables the pathogens to clump together in seawater and to scatter when they enter fresh water, perhaps facilitating seasonal outbreaks of cholera in coastal areas.
- Animals
Not-So-Great Hunter: Said the spider to the fly—Eek! I’m outta here
The poisonous brown recluse spider may turn out not to be a fearsome hunter so much as a scavenger.
- Earth
Chemical Reaction: Two flame retardants to phase out in 2004
The sole U.S. manufacturer of two widely used brominated fire retardants pledged to phase out its production of both products by the end of next year.
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- Math
The Shape of Space
The debate over the shape of space has taken some new twists with the analysis of satellite snapshots of the universe's temperature waves.
- Planetary Science
Martian Invasion
If all goes according to plan, three spacecraft—one in December, two in January—will land on the Red Planet, looking for evidence that liquid water once flowed on its surface.
