More Stories from the January 5, 2008 issue
- Physics
Tiptoe acrobats get it just right
Physicists have found that a water-skating insect leaps off the water surface by applying just the right amount of force. With video.
- Earth
Smog’s heavy impacts
Being overweight increases the risk that people will develop breathing difficulties after encountering smoggy air.
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Milking performance from damaged brains
A compound found in milk can mitigate damage to people's brains caused by stroke or diseases such as Alzheimer's.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping metabolic syndrome at bay
Chromium supplements reduced some of the unhealthy effects of a sedentary lifestyle in rats.
- Paleontology
Struck from above
Evidence of an extraterrestrial object striking Earth at the height of the last ice age comes from micrometeorites embedded in the tusks of creatures that were grazing the Alaskan tundra when the object burst in the air above.
- Humans
An earlier thaw can trim winter logging
In New Hampshire, the trend toward earlier spring thaws has significantly lowered logging revenues.
- Earth
No-drive experiment curbs air pollution in Beijing
Traffic-control measures can significantly reduce urban air pollution, a field study in Beijing this past summer indicates.
- Earth
In 2007, Greenland set a melting record
The duration and extent of ice melt across high-altitude portions of the Greenland ice sheet last year were the highest they've been in recent decades, satellite observations indicate.
- Humans
Science Service Becomes Society for Science & the Public
Science Service, founded in 1921 to provide better information to the public about scientific discoveries, is changing its name to Society for Science & the Public, reflecting a renewed mission to advance public engagement in science.
- Humans
Science News wins independent press award
The Editors of the Utne Reader have named Science News magazine a 2007 winner in its science and technology category.
- Health & Medicine
New Task: Malaria drug might inhibit some cancers
The antimalarial drug chloroquine may prevent some cancers.
- Earth
Plowing the Ancient Seas: Iceberg scours found off South Carolina
Recent sonar surveys off the southeastern United States have detected dozens of broad furrows on the seafloor that were carved by icebergs during the last ice age.
- Astronomy
Twinkle, Twinkle: Dark matter may have lit up first stars
The earliest stars in the universe might have been fueled by dark matter instead of nuclear fusion.
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Damage Control: Brain injuries fight off PTSD in vets
Damage to either of two brain regions protects combat veterans against developing the severe stress ailment known as post-traumatic stress disorder, a finding with implications for treating this condition.
- Paleontology
Whales started small
The ancestors of whales, some of which are the largest creatures ever to evolve, probably were mammals no larger than a fox.
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Reading the Repeats: Cells transcribe telomere DNA
Scientists have discovered that human cells make RNA transcripts of telomeres, the repetitive DNA at the ends of chromosomes, a finding that could have implications for understanding aging and cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Addiction Alleviator? Hallucinogen’s popularity grows
The unsanctioned use of an obscure hallucinogen, ibogaine, to treat addiction has exploded recently.
- Health & Medicine
A Different Side of Estrogen
Understanding estrogen's function is complicated by the fact that it can bind to two distinct receptors; scientists studying the second receptor now think that drugs targeting it could help a wide variety of ailments.
- Animals
Not So Spineless
Looking for personalities in animals, even among spiders and insects, could add new twists to ideas about evolution and explain some odd animal behavior.
- Humans
Letters from the January 5, 2008, issue of Science News
Missing link “Antibiotics in infancy tied to asthma” (SN: 7/7/07, p. 14) reported a correlation but no confident explanation for the relationship between receiving antibiotics and later developing asthma. “Ulcer bug may prevent asthma” (SN: 10/27/07, p. 270), which reports that children with Helicobacter pylori in their stomachs are less likely to get asthma, seems […]
