More Stories from the December 8, 2007 issue
- Health & Medicine
Malaria’s new guises
Scientists have observed Plasmodium falciparum enjoying three distinct lifestyles—two of which have never been seen before—in the blood of infected children.
- Humans
Divorce is not ecofriendly
Divorce often takes a devastating toll on families, but it has significant impacts on the environment as well.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes drug shows new potential
Exendin-4 (exenatide) might complement a drug called anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody in reversing type 1 diabetes, a study in mice shows.
- Health & Medicine
Putting tumors on pause
Keeping benign breast tumors from progressing into a malignant cancer can be achieved in mice by reducing a signaling protein.
- Humans
Strategies to improve teaching
Incorporating emerging data on how kids learn and cement ideas could help schools teach science more effectively, a new report argues.
- Tech
Tractor beam
Magnetic nanoparticles selectively bind to specific bacteria and can drag them out of a liquid.
- Physics
Sharper than expected
A new technique beats the resolution limits of ordinary microscopes in a way that seems to defy conventional optical theory.
- Plants
Botanists refine family tree for flowering plants
Two research teams have used the biggest array of flowering-plant genes yet to try to reconstruct the elusive evolutionary history of today's flowers.
- Health & Medicine
Sickle Save: Skin cells fix anemia in mice
Using a new technique to turn skin cells into stem cells, scientists have corrected sickle cell anemia in mice.
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Chimp Champ: Ape aces memory test, outscores people
A young chimp outperforms college students on a test of recalling numbers glimpsed for less than a quarter of a second. With video.
- Earth
The Salt Flat That Isn’t Flat: World’s largest playa sports ridges, valleys
An innovative field survey of the world's largest salt flat, a New Jersey–size playa high in the Andes, reveals that the barren expanse actually has minuscule, centimeter-scale variations in topography.
- Physics
15 = 3 × 5: Photons do their first quantum math
Physicists have performed the first calculation involving manipulation of the quantum states of photons, another step on the road to optical quantum computers.
- Health & Medicine
Angiogenesis Factors: Tracking down the suspects in blood vessel growth near tumors
Tumors enlist certain bone marrow cells in efforts to grow new blood vessels for self-nourishment.
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Perchlorate Pump: Molecule draws contaminant into breast milk
A molecular pump meant to transport iodine also concentrates perchlorate, an environmental pollutant, in breast milk.
- Planetary Science
A sunlike star’s early development
A new infrared portrait of an embryonic sunlike star reveals an early, crucial step in the process of planet formation.
- Archaeology
Muons Meet the Maya
Physicists are exploring the use of muons generated by cosmic rays to explore Mayan archaeological sites and to probe the interiors of volcanoes and shipping containers.
- Agriculture
Lettuce Liability
A new industry program to self-regulate most salad producers is forcing affected farmers to choose between adopting measures unfriendly to wildlife and a loss of major markets for their greens.
- Humans
Letters from the December 8, 2007, issue of Science News
Errors of biblical proportions “Lazarus taxa” is an appropriate name for species that seem to have been resurrected (“Back from the Dead?” SN: 11/17/07, p. 312). However, the Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead was a householder who lived with his sisters, Mary and Martha, in Bethany (John 11). The beggar named Lazarus appeared […]
