More Stories from the February 3, 2007 issue
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Child abuse heralds adult inflammation
A long-term study in New Zealand indicates that child abuse leads to a disruption of part of the stress response in adulthood that has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and chronic lung disease.
- Chemistry
Magnet makeover
A new family of magnets may be a first step toward organic versions of the familiar metal objects.
- Health & Medicine
Trade-offs in fibroids treatments
A minimally invasive procedure to cure uterine fibroids is less expensive, but also appears to be less effective, than surgery.
- Health & Medicine
Old cure may offer new malaria option
An herbal-tea remedy for malaria contains a component that may form the basis of a novel drug against the disease.
- Materials Science
Microstructures make a beetle brilliant
Engineers looking to make a variety of surfaces whiter and brighter could learn a few things from a lowly beetle.
- Physics
The mystery of the missing mass
Researchers found that, for one kind of particle at least, being located inside a nucleus slightly reduces its mass.
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Plastics ingredient disrupts fetal-egg development
A common estrogen-mimicking chemical can damage eggs while an animal is still in the womb.
- Earth
Gas tanks could guzzle half of U.S. corn yields
Strong expansion of the U.S. corn-to-ethanol industry, now under way, stands poised to divert much of the grain from food uses to transportation fuel.
- Archaeology
Suburb of Stonehenge: Ritual village found near famed rock site
Excavations at a 4,600-year-old village in southern England indicate that it was occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge and hosted feasts where people assembled before transporting the dead to the huge circle of stones, which served as an ancestor memorial.
- Earth
Disaster’s Consequences: Hurricane’s legacy includes arsenic
Construction debris strewn across the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina contains a disturbing amount of arsenic that could contaminate groundwater if not properly managed.
- Astronomy
Kaput: Hubble’s main camera stops working
The sharpest, most sensitive camera on the aging Hubble Space Telescope has stopped working.
- Health & Medicine
Early Fix: Prion disease remedied in mice
Diseases caused by misfolded proteins called prions can be reversed if caught early enough, experiments in mice suggest.
- Animals
Bite This: Borrowed toad toxins save snake’s neck
An Asian snake gets toxins by salvaging them from the poisonous toads it eats.
- Physics
Waves from the Big Bang: Upcoming detectors may view newborn universe
Ripples in space-time may soon give scientists a glimpse of the universe as it looked a tiny fraction of a second after its birth.
- Humans
Top Prospects for Tomorrow’s Labs: National competition yields a dream team of young scientific talent
Twenty young women and 20 young men aced an early challenge in their scientific careers by becoming finalists in the annual Intel Science Talent Search.
- Earth
Sudden Chill
Today's combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability, and urban demographics increases the likelihood that humankind could suffer a devastating nuclear winter.
- Materials Science
Savvy Skins
Researchers are developing new coatings that incorporate multiple functions, offer chemical reactivity, or act in response to stimuli in the environment.
- Humans
Letters from the February 3, 2007, issue of Science News
All together now It is not only the scientific literature that documents the unexpected “doughnut” pattern in swarms (“The Mind of the Swarm,” SN: 11/25/06, p. 347). Italo Calvino’s fictional Mr. Palomar observed (rather more lyrically) about the flocking of Roman starlings, “Finally a form emerges from the confused flutter of wings, advances, condenses: it […]
