More Stories from the June 18, 2005 issue
- Anthropology
Climate shift shaped Aussie extinctions
Stone Age people lived virtually side-by-side with now-extinct animals in western Australia for 6,000 years.
- Tech
Slick trick snags catalyst
A costly type of catalyst sticks to Teflon, suggesting a new way to recover these chemicals from solutions.
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New treatment for extreme grief
Severe grief may be a unique mental disorder.
- Paleontology
Newfound dinosaur wasn’t sticking its neck out
Fossils of a new, 10-meter-long sauropod species excavated in South America suggest that, unlike most of its massive kin, the creature had a relatively short neck.
- Astronomy
Andromeda gets bigger
A new study reveals that the diameter of the Andromeda galaxy's disk spans some 220,000 light-years, three times as big as had been estimated.
- Astronomy
The supernova that wasn’t
A brilliant stellar outburst once thought to be a supernova explosion actually left the star intact.
- Astronomy
Making waves
Locked in a deadly embrace, two white dwarf stars may be the strongest source of gravitational waves now flooding our galaxy.
- Planetary Science
Planet Hunt Strikes Rock: Hot kin of Earth orbits nearby star
Astronomers have found the closest known cousin to Earth, a solid world just 15 light-years beyond the solar system.
- Health & Medicine
Preventing PMS: Vitamin and mineral let women avoid syndrome
Ample calcium and vitamin D in the diet prevent premenstrual syndrome in some women.
- Archaeology
Ancient Glassmakers: Egyptians crafted ingots for Mediterranean trade
New archaeological finds indicate that by about 3,250 years ago, Egypt had become a major glass producer and exporter.
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Smoking’s Reward: Nicotine triggers opiate-pleasure response
A study of mouse brains suggests that nicotine works via the same pathways that give morphine and other opiates their addictively rewarding qualities.
- Health & Medicine
No Sugar Babies: Study suggests treating gestational diabetes
Women with gestational diabetes who receive dietary counseling, regular blood sugar monitoring, and insulin as needed lessen their risk of birth complications.
- Humans
Using one’s head
Porters in Nepal turn out to be the most efficient human load carriers yet recorded, carrying burdens that average 93 percent of their body weight.
- Earth
Wetland Blanket: Volcanic sulfates may curb methane emission
Field studies hint that the deposition on wetlands of sulfate compounds from the atmosphere could temporarily stifle those regions' natural emissions of methane.
- Materials Science
Whisking Whiskers: Nanobrushes sweep up
Researchers have made microscopic brushes with carbon nanotube bristles.
- Math
Pieces of Numbers
A long-sought proof has forged an intriguing link between numbers expressed as sums and as products.
- Health & Medicine
Striking a Better Bargain with HIV
Because a drug frequently used to block the transmission of HIV from mother to infant may have negative consequences for the mothers, researchers are looking for inexpensive treatments that will benefit both mother and child.
- Humans
Letters from the June 18, 2005, issue of Science News
Road worriers “Navigating Celestial Currents: Math leads spacecraft on joy rides through the solar system” (SN: 4/16/05, p. 250) gives the casual reader the distorted view that one could travel the solar system at will by using these methods. These are generally small perturbations on the much larger primary propulsion requirement that is fixed by […]
