More Stories from the May 27, 2006 issue
- Tech
Directing tubular traffic
Researchers have shown that they can steer individual protein tubes along tiny channels of a glass chip.
- Chemistry
Leaking lead
A disinfectant used by some U.S. water utilities dissolves lead in laboratory experiments.
- Physics
A well-spun egg also jumps
Physicists have demonstrated that spinning a hard-boiled egg horizontally makes it jump into the air.
- Planetary Science
The sands of Titan
Although the surface of Saturn's moon Titan is cold enough to freeze methane, it has sand dunes like those in the Arabian Desert, according to radar images taken by the Cassini spacecraft.
- Health & Medicine
Many people don’t see well
Vision screening of a broad sample of people in the United States ages 12 and older finds that 6.4 percent of them have substandard vision.
- Health & Medicine
Hookworms hitched rides with nomads
Horseback-riding herders known as Scythians once traveled far and wide across Eurasia, and their remains contain the parasites to prove it.
- Animals
True-pal lizards may show odd gene
Colorful lizards in California may offer an example of a long-sought evolutionary factor called greenbeard genes, a possible explanation for altruism.
- Health & Medicine
Prescription stimulants are big on campus
Nearly 1 in 10 students at a New England college admits to using prescription stimulants without authorization.
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Burden of Abuse: Violent partners take mental toll on women
Physical abuse at the hands of their husbands or live-in male partners contributes substantially to major depression and other disorders among women.
- Ecosystems
Top-Down Lowdown: Predators shape coastal ecosystem
The health of southern California kelp forests may depend more on the ecosystem's predator population than the forest's access to nutrients.
- Health & Medicine
Open Water, Open Mouths: Scuba divers face infection risks
A new study takes a stab at quantifying the risks that waterborne bacteria and viruses pose to scuba divers.
- Health & Medicine
For the Birds: New vaccines protect chickens from avian flu
By piggybacking components of strains of avian-influenza virus onto an existing poultry vaccine, scientists have created experimental vaccines that can prevent bird flu in chickens.
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Big Oil, Tiny Barons: Microbes can unleash trapped petroleum
Specialized microbes can lift trapped oil from wells long gone dry.
- Animals
Lobster Hygiene: Healthy animals quick to spot another’s ills
Caribbean spiny lobsters will avoid sharing a den with another lobster that's coming down with a viral disease.
- Materials Science
Gripping Tale: Metal oozes in nanotubes’ grasp
Carbon nanotubes can squeeze substances inside them with such high pressures that even hard metals squish like putty.
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Violent Developments
New research has identified a spectrum of interacting elements that contribute to impulsive violence in young people.
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Light Impacts
Depending on when it's encountered, blue light can be more effective than other hues (or even white light) at waking people, setting their biological clocks, and maximizing visual acuity.
- Humans
Letters from the May 27, 2006, issue of Science News
Dig it or don’t I am rather surprised at all the attention this find is getting (“Out of the Shadows: Not all early mammals were shy and retiring,” SN: 3/18/06, p. 173). Some would think that these mammals caused the downfall of the dinosaurs, but the fossil record suggests a very different scenario. There is […]
