More Stories from the August 4, 2001 issue
- Physics
Quantum queerness gets quick, compact
New ways to trap and cool atoms may hasten practical uses of strange ultracold atom clouds known as Bose-Einstein condensates.
- Physics
Turning magnetic resonance inside out
A new method of manipulating magnetic signals makes it possible to gather useful information about a chemical sample—or perhaps one day a person—without often-claustrophobic confinement inside a magnetic coil.
- Physics
Insects in the wind lead to less power
A previously puzzling pattern of power loss in wind turbines results from coatings of insects that were smashed by the blades during low winds.
- Chemistry
Carbon nanotubes show superconductivity
Researchers have made individual superconductive carbon nanotubes that are just 0.4 nanometer wide.
- Chemistry
Longest carbon-carbon bonds discovered
Researchers have found a type of carbon-carbon bond that's twice as long as the longest naturally occurring bond linking two carbon atoms.
- Agriculture
Gene Makes Tomatoes Tolerate Salt
The world's first genetically engineered salt-tolerant tomato plant may help farmers utilize spoiled lands.
- Chemistry
Researchers take an element off the table
Researchers have retracted their 1999 claim that they had created the heaviest member of the periodic table so far, element 118.
- Health & Medicine
Surgery for epilepsy outshines medication
People with severe epilepsy who undergo brain surgery have markedly fewer disabling seizures during the following year than do those relying on medication.
- Astronomy
Ground-based telescope detects star’s corona
Astronomers using a ground-based telescope have for the first time observed near-ultraviolet light from the corona of a star other than our sun.
- Paleontology
Study picks new site for dinosaur nostrils
A new analysis of fossils and living animals suggests that most dinosaurs' nostrils occurred at locations toward the tip of their snout rather than farther up on their face, a concept that may change scientists' views of the animals' physiology and behavior.
- Animals
Roach gals get less choosy as time goes by
As their first reproductive peak wanes, female cockroaches become more like male ones, willing to mate with any potential partner that moves.
- Paleontology
Neandertals, humans may have grown apart
A controversial fossil analysis finds that the skulls of Neandertals and humans grew in markedly different ways.
- Ecosystems
Fish stocking may transmit toad disease
Hatchery-raised trout can transfer a deadly fungus to western toads, bolstering the view that fish stocking may play a role in amphibian population declines.
- Health & Medicine
Busting the Gut Busters
Scientists are uncovering a cache of specialized weaponry used by bacteria that can spear holes in the intestine, perforate it, force it to change shape, and then spew toxins that attack other organs.
- Tech
Soaking Up Rays
Although light shines through body parts of a primitive marine sponge much as it does through sophisticated optical fibers for telecommunications, scientists differ on whether sponges hold clues to better fibers for humankind.
