More Stories from the January 31, 2009 issue
- Health & Medicine
Fewer dopamine receptors makes for risky business
Brain-scanning study in people sees link between personality, dopamine system.
- Humans
Stone Age tools go south
Diamond-mining pits have yielded stone artifacts old enough to suggest that hand axe production started 1.6 million years ago in southern Africa, not just in eastern Africa.
- Space
Core of the galaxy in high-res
New high-resolution mosaic sharpens understanding of Milky Way’s turbulent center.
- Space
This just in: Milky Way as massive as 3 trillion suns
Heftier size puts our galaxy on par with its neighbor Andromeda, implying a closer collision date. Findings also suggest Milky Way has four spiral arms.
- Math
Mathematicians show how beetles can share a niche
New equations help solve decades-old puzzle of why one species doesn’t always outcompete another.
- Health & Medicine
Parkinson’s brain surgery works in older patients, too
A surgery in which two tiny electrodes are placed in the brain improves the quality of life of patients with Parkinson’s disease, including older patients, and seems to have only short-term side effects.
- Earth
Early asteroids unexpectedly crusty
Two meteorites retrieved from West Antarctica, fragments of an ancient asteroid, contain a type of rock commonly found in Earth’s crust but previously unseen in meteorites.
- Health & Medicine
Early C-sections pose risks
Babies delivered by elective cesarean section just a week or two before 39 weeks of gestation face increased risk of respiratory and other complications.
- Health & Medicine
Record low for human blood oxygen levels
Study of Mt. Everest climbers shows some bodies can tolerate low oxygen levels that are toxic to others.
- Humans
Migrants settled New World in tandem
A genetic investigation of two rare types of mitochondrial DNA in Native Americans suggests that people first entered the Americas in two groups, following separate routes.
- Space
Tuned in to new noise from the cosmos
Unexplained radio noise may be signals from the early universe.
- Health & Medicine
Sirtuin shown to control gene activity
A previously overlooked protein called SIRT6 provides some molecular clues to aging.
- Life
Love song of the dengue vector mosquito
Male and female mosquitoes harmonize pitch when in the mood.
- Math
Calculating the geography of crime
A mathematician fine-tunes how to blend crime records, geography to track down serial criminals.
- Life
Superloud moth jams bat sonar
Newly recorded moth could be the first demonstrated case of natural sonar-jamming.
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Science Future for January 31, 2009
February 7–15 Wonders of Physics annual show at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Visit sprott.physics.wisc.edu/wop.htm February 12 A global celebration of Charles Darwin’s birthday. Visit www.darwinday.org February 14–15 Take your valentine on a simulated Mars mission at the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, Calif. Visit www.chabotspace.org
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The Dominant Animal – Human Evolution and the Environment Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich
How human culture has shaped the environment, and how the environment has, in turn, shaped evolution. The Dominant Animal – Human Evolution and the Environment by Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich Island Press, 2008, 428 p., $35
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Evolution: A Little History of a Great Idea by Gerard Cheshire
A compact guide with one-page chapters covering natural selection, epigenetics, the anthropic principle and everything in between. Walker & Company, 2008, 58 p., $12 Evolution: A Little History of a Great Idea by Gerard Cheshire
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The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA by Mark Schultz
A scientist from an asexual alien race provides a primer on genetics in this graphic novel for teenagers. Hill and Wang, 2009, 150 p., $14.95 The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA by Mark Schultz
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Book Review: Charles Darwin: The ‘Beagle’ Letters by Frederick Burkhardt (Editor)
Review by Tom Siegfried.
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Book Review: Freaks of Nature – What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution by Mark S. Blumberg
Review by Elizabeth Quill.
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- Life
Molecular Evolution
Investigating the genetic books of life reveals new details of 'descent with modification' and the forces driving it.
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SN Special : Darwin turns 200
This special Web edition of Science News includes expanded versions of articles from the magazine’s print edition plus two additional features, all commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.
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- Life
Step-by-step Evolution
Hard to find, but very fruitful when found, transitional fossils fill in the gaps in the paleontological record.
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Letters
Right-left preference In the article “Body in mind” (SN: 10/25/08, p. 24), Dr. Casasanto speaks of results with people who are left-handed or right-handed. But no mention is made of people who are innately ambidextrous, as in my family. Has he worked with any of these people? What about people who are almost ambidextrous but […]
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Science Past for January 31, 1959
SEA VOICE MAY WARN REDS OF COMING STORMS — By listening to the sea’s voice, Russian scientists say they may be able to detect approaching storms. A Scientific Information Report circulated by the Central Intelligence Agency carries an abstract from an “unevaluated” paper prepared by Ya. Petrov, a Russian scientist. [He] says … V. V. […]
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Voyages of Discovery: A Visual Celebration of Ten of the Greatest Natural History Expeditions by Dr. Tony Rice
Artwork and photographs from the collection of the Natural History Museum in London document three centuries of exploration. Voyages of Discovery: A Visual Celebration of Ten of the Greatest Natural History Expeditions by Dr. Tony Rice Firefly Books, 2008, 335 p., $39.95
