More Stories from the October 27, 2007 issue
- Astronomy
Record-breaking supernova
A newly discovered supernova, 100 billion times as bright as the sun, is the most luminous ever recorded.
- Materials Science
Polymer could improve natural gas purification
A new polymer membrane that efficiently separates carbon dioxide from methane could greatly ease the processing of natural gas.
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Stored blood loses some of its punch
Loss of nitric oxide from donated blood that's been stored for as little as 3 hours could impair its ability to flow through a recipient's blood vessels.
- Humans
Math clubs get national sponsor
A math group is offering all U.S. middle schools free materials to set up clubs aimed at making math fun.
- Health & Medicine
Ulcer bug may prevent asthma
Children whose stomachs carry the bacterium Helicobacter pylori are at lower risk for asthma than children who don't have the bug.
- Health & Medicine
Twice bitten
Repeat episodes of Lyme disease are more likely caused by a second tick bite rather than by a return of the original illness.
- Health & Medicine
‘Knuckle fever’ reaches Italy
A virus that causes debilitating fever and joint pain has spread from Africa to Italy, where it has caused at least 284 cases of illness.
- Health & Medicine
HIV-positive people getting heavier
With drug treatment, HIV-infected people no longer suffer from wasting but are about as overweight or obese as the U.S. population as a whole.
- Paleontology
Digging the Scene: Dinos burrowed, built dens
Dinosaurs remains fossilized within an ancient burrow are the first indisputable evidence that some dinosaurs maintained an underground lifestyle.
- Tech
Catch a Wave: Carbon nanotubes go wireless
Despite all the hubbub about carbon nanotubes as possible building blocks of superstrong materials or as components of supersmall electronics, few practical applications have yet come to fruition. Integrating nanotubes into functioning electronic devices has proved especially difficult, but researchers have now built a carbon-nanotube component into a simple radio receiver. TINY RADIO. A single […]
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Good Buzz: Tiny vibrations may limit fat-cell formation
Mice that spend time on a mildly vibrating platform develop bone or muscle cells in preference to fat cells.
- Physics
Let There Be Aluminum-42: Experiment creates surprise isotope
In experiments that created the heaviest isotope yet of magnesium, an unexpected isotope of aluminum also showed up.
- Astronomy
Odd Couples: Big black holes challenge star theory
The discovery of a black hole almost 16 times as massive as the sun, and the possible discovery of an even heavier one, challenge theories of how such black holes form.
- Anthropology
Not So Clear-Cut: Soil erosion may not have led to Mayan downfall
Hand-planted maize, beans, and squash sustained the Mayans for millennia, until their culture collapsed about 1,100 years ago. Some researchers have suggested that the Mayans’ very success in turning forests into farmland led to soil erosion that made farming increasingly difficult and eventually caused their downfall. But a new study of ancient lake sediments has […]
- Animals
Smells Funny: Fish schools break up over body odor
Just an hour's swim in slightly contaminated water can give a fish such bad body odor that its schoolmates shun it.
- Tech
Virtual Worlds, Real Science
Epidemiologists and social scientists are tapping into virtual online worlds inhabited by millions to collect data with real-world uses.
- Earth
The Big Dry
Parts of Australia have suffered from severe drought for more than a decade, and people, vegetation, and animals are feeling the heat.
- Humans
Letters from the October 27, 2007, issue of Science News
Heated dispute “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” (SN: 8/25/07, p. 125) states that “an increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, not an increase in solar radiation” is responsible for current global warming. What is the scientific—not political—basis for that remark? Warren FinleyLaguna Beach, Calif. Increasing solar radiation doesn’t affect climate change? […]
