News
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Biology of rank: Social status sets up monkeys’ cocaine use
Male monkeys' position in the social pecking order influences their brain chemistry in ways that promote either resistance or susceptibility to the reinforcing effects of cocaine.
- Tech
Little levers for satellites: Cilia may precisely dock tiny spacecraft
Tiny artificial hairs that imitate biological cilia flex with enough muscle and finesse to maneuver tiny satellites into place for docking with a mother ship.
- Humans
Forbidden tests: Panel seeks ban on human clones
A national advisory panel has asked Congress to forbid cloning aimed at creating a child but urged the lawmakers to permit other medical experiments with cloned human cells.
- Chemistry
Making silicon naturally: Chemists glimpse organic substance in plankton
For the first time, researchers have found a compound composed of both carbon and silicon within a living organism.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer clue: RNA-destroying enzyme may thwart prostate-tumor growth
Scientists have found a mutated gene that predisposes men of some families to prostate cancer.
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Parrots will fluoresce for sex
A budgerigar's head literally glows for its mate, and both males and females of this parrot species prefer to court radiant partners.
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Female pipefish face toughest odds
In the world of pipefish, which are cousins of sea horses, sexual selection may reverse, wherein females battle each other for male favor through sexual selection.
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A New Look for Science News
Starting next week, the print edition of Science News will have a new appearance.
- Earth
Toxic Pfiesteria inhabit foreign waters
The notorious Pfiesteria microbes, implicated in fish kills and human illness along the mid-Atlantic U.S. coast, have turned up in Norway.
- Humans
Official chooses Nevada for nuclear waste
On Jan. 10, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham notified Nevada's Governor Kenny Guinn by telephone that he intends to recommend that southwestern Nevada's Yucca Mountain site serve as the nation's long-term geological depository for high-level nuclear waste.
- Health & Medicine
Nicotine metabolism shows ethnic bias
A comparison of Latino, white, and Chinese-American smokers suggests that people of East Asian descent are apt to clear nicotine from their blood more gradually than the other smokers do, thereby staving off a craving for the next cigarette.
- Materials Science
Mammal cells make fake spider silk better
Using long and abundant water-soluble proteins secreted by bioengineered mammal cells, scientists have spun the first artificial spider silk demonstrated to have some of the remarkable mechanical properties of the real thing.
