More Stories from the April 21, 2007 issue
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Psychotherapy aids bipolar treatment
Any of three forms of psychotherapy enhances emotional stability in people with bipolar disorder who already receive standard medications for that severe psychiatric ailment.
- Earth
Increase in chemical disposals
Industrial facilities in the United States released more than 4 billion pounds of chemicals into the environment in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory.
- Astronomy
Eclipsing a black hole
A chance eclipse has enabled astronomers for the first time to measure the width of a disk of swirling, hot matter around a supermassive black hole.
- Physics
This is your brain on a chip
Biophysicists have put neurons on a chip and induced them to form multiple patterns of synchronized firing, the mechanism at the basis of memory.
- Physics
Toward imaging single biomolecules
Experiments have given additional evidence that a future generation of X-ray sources called free-electron lasers may be able to image single biomolecules.
- Earth
On the rocks
New research explains why a cancer-causing form of chromium has been turning up in ground and surface waters far from industrial sources.
- Physics
Tiny particles baffle physicists, again
An experiment failed to confirm the existence of a new elementary particle called the sterile neutrino, but its results could still point to some new physics.
- Planetary Science
Little Enceladus disturbs Saturn’s magnetic field
Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus is acting as a brake on the giant planet's magnetic field.
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Violent Justice: Adult system fails young offenders
Laws that allow people under age 18 to be tried and imprisoned as adults have unintended effects, promoting an increase in new violent offenses among youth handled by the adult justice system.
- Paleontology
Forest Primeval: The oldest known trees finally gain a crown
Recently unearthed fossils provide new insights about the appearance of the world's oldest known trees, plants that previously were known only from preserved stumps.
- Planetary Science
Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?
Our solar system's periodic motion from one side of the galaxy to the other could expose life on Earth to massive amounts of cosmic rays and cause recurring, catastrophic mass extinctions.
- Tech
A New Low: Lilliputian pipette releases tiniest drops
Physicists have constructed a pipette that dispenses a billionth of a trillionth of a liter.
- Health & Medicine
Visual Clarity: People with MS maintain eyesight with drug
A drug for multiple sclerosis seems to prevent subtle vision loss in many patients.
- Health & Medicine
Tenacious STD: Drug-resistant gonorrhea is spreading
Responding to a surge in tough-to-treat gonorrhea, the CDC has stopped recommending Cipro-class antibiotics for the disease.
- Astronomy
Back to (Near) the Beginning: Galactic springtime
In their quest to capture ever-earlier moments of cosmic history, astronomers may have found some of the first galaxies.
- Computing
The Machine’s Got Rhythm
By teaching computers how to transcribe musical recordings, a relatively mundane task, researchers are opening new musical possibilities.
- Tech
Wanted: Better Yardsticks
A new federal survey has found that a lack of measurement tools may jeopardize the United States' edge in technological innovation.
- Humans
Letters from the April 21, 2007, issue of Science News
How the West isn’t one The author of “Why So Dry? Ocean temperatures alone don’t explain droughts” (SN: 2/10/07, p. 84), seems to feel, like most other writers do, that “the western United States” properly covers all geographical bases. Believe me, the Pacific Northwest is anything but dry. One other point about geography: Weather phenomena, […]
