More Stories from the January 7, 2006 issue
- Planetary Science
Moon spray
The Cassini spacecraft has found conclusive evidence that the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus spews jets of icy particles into space.
- Health & Medicine
Protein exposes long-term risk from heart problems
Elevated blood concentrations of a certain protein can signal risk of death in people with heart problems.
- Anthropology
European face-off for early farmers
A new analysis of modern and ancient human skulls supports the idea that early farmers in the Middle East spread into Europe between 11,000 and 6,500 years ago, intermarried with people there, and passed on their agricultural way of life to the native Europeans.
- Tech
Facing a hairy electronics problem
Investigating why kinky metal filaments sprout spontaneously on electronic- circuit cards, researchers have found that the way metal films have been electroplated onto the surface in the first place plays a lingering role.
- Earth
Estimating a temblor’s strength on the fly
New analyses of ground motions caused by large earthquakes suggest that it may be possible to estimate the full magnitude of such quakes immediately after they start rumbling.
- Anthropology
Stone Age Footwork: Ancient human prints turn up down under
An ancient, dried-up lakeshore in Australia has yielded the largest known collection of Stone Age footprints, made about 20,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Alzheimer Clue: Busy brain connections may have downside
Brain areas that are chronically activated have excess amyloid beta, the waxy protein associated with Alzheimer's disease.
- Earth
Gunning for the Gut: Tiny particles might fight invasive zebra mussels
By modifying a technique used to flavor foods, researchers have made a substance that poisons the zebra mussel.
- Chemistry
Molecular Car Park: Material packs in carbon dioxide
A porous, crystalline material composed of metal and organic building blocks holds more carbon dioxide than other porous substances do.
- Animals
Locust Upset: DNA puts swarmer’s origin in Africa
The desert locust was not an ancient export from the Americas, according to a new DNA analysis.
- Physics
Quantum Chip: Device handles ions as if they were data
A new microchip can trap and move an ion, preliminary steps toward carrying out quantum computations on a chip.
- Earth
Mass movement
Two satellites designed to note small changes in Earth's gravitational field detected effects of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake that occurred west of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004.
- Astronomy
Gauging Star Birth: Spacecraft uses gamma rays as stellar tracer
Using radioactive material spewed into space by dying stars, astronomers have measured the star-formation rate in our galaxy over the past few million years.
- Physics
Magnetic Overthrow
Researchers have discovered and begun to exploit a fundamentally new way to exert magnetic influences, at least on extremely small scales.
- Health & Medicine
Bright Lights, Big Cancer
A woman's blood provides better sustenance for breast cancer just after she's been exposed to bright light than when she's been in steady darkness.
- Humans
Letters from the January 7, 2006, issue of Science News
Death in the Americas I was wondering if researchers have given any thought to the idea that in the same way that disease devastated human populations after the European discovery of the Americas, perhaps disease was a contributing factor in the demise of much of the fauna of the Western Hemisphere (“Caribbean Extinctions: Climate change […]
