More Stories from the August 21, 2004 issue
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Planetary Science
Saturn Watch: Cassini finds two new moons and lightning
The Cassini spacecraft has detected two moons that may be the smallest ever found around Saturn as well as changes in the character of lightning first detected in Saturn's atmosphere in the early 1980s.
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Rattle and Hum: Molecular machinery makes yeast cells purr
Molecular-motor proteins inside a yeast cell can cause the cell walls to vibrate.
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Lifting the Mood: Depressed teens benefit from combined therapy
Treatment that includes both an antidepressant drug and talk therapy is especially beneficial for teenagers diagnosed with major depression.
- Health & Medicine
Finding a Missing Link: Scientists show a new connection between inflammation and cancer
Scientists studying gastrointestinal cancer in mice have found powerful evidence of a molecular connection between inflammation and cancer.
- Earth
Early Shift: North Sea plankton and fish move out of sync
As ocean temperatures in the North Sea have warmed in recent decades, the life cycles of some species low in the food chain have accelerated significantly, sometimes wreaking ecological havoc.
- Materials Science
Warm Reflections: Window tint kicks in when it’s hot
A novel window coating automatically transforms into a heat mirror only when warmed above room temperature.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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, […]
