More Stories from the January 8, 2005 issue
- Physics
Probe bares heart of X-ray inferno
Physicists have snapped the first real-time pictures of the exploding core of the world's most powerful X-ray source other than a nuclear bomb.
- Humans
Helping patients decipher options
Scientific publishers and research organizations are preparing to launch a Web site that will make new research findings available to the public in an easy-to-understand context.
- Earth
Ocean-sensor project reaches milestone
Oceanographers seeking to deploy an armada of 3,000 robotic probes to take the pulse of Earth's oceans have passed the halfway mark and hope to have the full array of sensors in place by 2007.
- Astronomy
A dwarf with a disk
The Hubble Space Telescope has examined in unprecedented detail a ring of debris around a star that could be the nearest and youngest known home for planets outside the solar system.
-
Plants: Importance of being economic
The pulse of the real estate market in a given area turns out to be a powerful indicator of how many exotic plant species have invaded the neighborhood.
- Astronomy
Ring robber
Images taken by the Cassini spacecraft provide graphic evidence of Saturn's moon Prometheus stealing particles from the planet's narrow F ring.
- Earth
Tsunami Disaster: Scientists model the big quake and its consequences
Scientists are modeling the immediate and long-term effects of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck west of Indonesia the morning of Dec. 26, 2004, and triggered tsunamis that killed tens of thousands of people.
- Health & Medicine
Beat Generation: Genetically modified stem cells repair heart
Tissue engineers have for the first time used genetically modified human stem cells to repair damaged hearts in guinea pigs.
- Anthropology
Temples of Boom: Ancient Hawaiians took fast road to statehood
A boom in temple construction on two Hawaiian islands around 400 years ago marked the surprisingly rapid formation of an early political state.
- Earth
Reflections on Insecticides: Mirror forms of agrochemicals set risk
The toxicity of an insecticide or how long it persists in the environment depends on which mirror-image form of the chemical is present.
- Health & Medicine
Bad Combo? Some antidepressants may hamper breast cancer drug
Certain widely used antidepressants and a woman's own genes might diminish the effect of tamoxifen, a frontline breast cancer drug.
- Physics
Twinkle Toes: How geckos’ sticky feet stay clean
Besides allowing geckos to cling to walls and ceilings, the millions of tiny fibers on the undersides of these lizards' toes clean themselves with each step.
- Animals
Mixing Genes: Bird immigrants make unexpected differences
A pair of decades-long studies of birds moving into other birds' neighborhoods show that immigration can have a quirkier effect than predicted by the usual textbook view.
- Tech
Frankenstein’s Chips
As evidence mounts that drug-safety trials can miss dangerous effects, scientists are building living, miniature models of animals and people to enhance drug and chemical tests.
- Health & Medicine
Food Colorings
Many deeply hued plant pigments appear to offer health benefits, from fighting heart disease and obesity to preserving memory.
- Humans
Letters from the January 8, 2005, issue of Science News
Below the surface I would suggest that the Italian hydrologists cited in “Fighting Water with Water: To lift the city, pump the sea beneath Venice” (SN: 10/30/04, p. 277: Fighting Water with Water: To lift the city, pump the sea beneath Venice) consider the law of unintended consequences. Similar actions begun in 1978 at an […]
