More Stories from the December 4, 2004 issue
- Earth
Inhaled particles damage vascular lining
Airborne soot and other pollutant particles can impair the ability of tiny vessels in the body to properly regulate blood flow, an animal study finds.
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Clock genes regulate blood sugar
Circadian-clock genes may play an important role in governing the body's metabolism of dietary sugars and fats.
- Earth
Some temblors probably were triggered by tides
Detailed analyses of large earthquakes suggest that some of them may have been triggered by strong tides in Earth's crust.
- Health & Medicine
Preventive drugs protect children
Preventive treatment with inexpensive drugs decreases rainy-season cases of malaria in Senegal.
- Health & Medicine
Probing a parasite for vulnerability
Researchers have discovered an enzyme that is indispensable to the parasite that causes sleeping sickness, and disabling that enzyme could offer a novel treatment strategy for the disease.
- Health & Medicine
Soldiers in Iraq coming down with parasitic disease
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have contracted leishmaniasis, a parasite-borne disease that attacks the skin.
- Health & Medicine
Extensive test shows cholera vaccine works
A vaccine for cholera has proved up to 81 percent effective in a large-scale public health trial in Mozambique.
- Earth
Snow Blow: Image of Mount Everest from orbit captures enormous plume
A photograph from Earth orbit of an immense plume of snow wafting from Mount Everest could shed new light on how strong winds redistribute precipitation in the Himalayas and other mountain chains.
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Stressed to Death: Mental tension ages cells
Prolonged stress can cause cells to age faster than normal.
- Animals
Grow-Slow Potion: Pheromone keeps bee youngsters youthful
Researchers have identified a compound made by the senior workers in a honeybee colony that prolongs the time that teenage bees stay home babysitting.
- Anthropology
South American Surprise: Ancient farmers settled in Uruguay’s wetlands
The discovery of a 4,200-year-old farming settlement in Uruguay challenges traditional notions of where early South American societies took root.
- Health & Medicine
Stones-Be-Gone: Gene-targeting drug restores chemical balance protecting the gallbladder
A drug tested in mice prevents gallstones by stimulating a gene that controls levels of different chemicals in the gallbladder.
- Health & Medicine
Antioxidant Booster: Protein curbs lung damage caused by smoke
A protein called Nrf2 defends against emphysema by activating dozens of genes that combat free radicals and toxic pollutants, a study in mice suggests.
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DNA Bar Codes
Scientists are using a small piece of DNA as a molecular bar code, a unique identifier to separate organisms into species.
- Math
Take a Chance
Researchers are helping to turn the art of generating randomness into a precise science.
- Humans
Letters from the December 4, 2004, issue of Science News
Shouting about decaf? As a decaf drinker, I found myself shouting, “What about caffeine”?” as I read “Coffee’s curious heart effects” (SN: 10/2/04, p. 222: Coffee’s curious heart effects). How can any report not, at least, mention its involvement or lack thereof? Greg TulloRaleigh, N.C. Researcher Pertti Happonen suspects that caffeine was responsible for the […]
