Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Unorthodox Strategy: New cancer vaccine may thwart melanoma
In experiments on mice, destroying good skin cells can induce the immune system to kill cancerous versions of these cells.
By Nathan Seppa - Astronomy
Cosmic Melody
An astronomer has converted fluctuations in the density of the early universe—the seeds of the first galaxies and stars—into audible sound.
By Ron Cowen - Physics
Antimatter loses again
A study of subatomic B mesons reveals a new way in which the laws of physics differ for matter and antimatter, providing another clue to why there's almost no antimatter in the universe today.
By Peter Weiss - Planetary Science
Finding a lunar meteorite’s home
Scientists have for the first time pinpointed the source of a meteorite that came from the moon.
By Ron Cowen - Materials Science
Bacterial glue: The stuff that binds?
A sticky slime secreted by bacteria could soon find its way into a host of wood products, including plywood and particleboard.
- Health & Medicine
Demanding careers may thwart Alzheimer’s
People who spend many years in mentally taxing jobs are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than are people who do more-routine work.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Neutrons may spotlight cancers
Researchers have taken a first step toward developing neutron beams as a medical diagnostic tool that might provide earlier detection of cancers.
By Peter Weiss - Materials Science
Sea urchin shell lights the way for optical material
Using the porous skeleton of a sea urchin as a template, materials scientists have fabricated a photonic crystal.
- Agriculture
Bees increase coffee profits
Scientists studying a Costa Rican coffee farm have estimated the monetary value of conserving nearby wooded habitat for the bees that pollinate coffee plants.
By Ben Harder - Humans
Letters from the August 21, 2004, issue of Science News
Complex issue When cyanobacteria and plants transfer electrons photosynthetically, light is absorbed not by their photosynthetic proteins but by chlorophylls (“Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins,” SN: 6/5/04, p. 355: Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins). Some of these proteins indeed participate in electron flow, […]
By Science News - Astronomy
3-D solar eruptions
Solar physicists have developed a technique to obtain the three-dimensional structure of coronal mass ejections by using two-dimensional images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
By Ron Cowen - Chemistry
Tricky Business
The way a drug crystallizes to form a solid can make or break a billion-dollar product, which explains why pharmaceutical and crystal chemists are racing to control this poorly understood process.