More Stories from the July 10, 2004 issue
- Astronomy
Controlling the speed of solar eruptions
The billion-ton blobs of magnetized gas that the sun sporadically hurls into space can't reach Earth in less than half a day.
- Health & Medicine
Caloric threats from sugarfree drinks?
Regularly downing sweet drinks or sugar substitutes may foster overeating by reprogramming an individual's ability to judge a snack's caloric impact.
- Materials Science
DNA coordinates assembly of glassy nanoscale structures
Chemists use DNA as a scaffold to construct miniature rings and rods out of silica.
- Earth
Warmer climate, decreased rice yield
Agricultural data gathered over a dozen years at a Philippines rice paddy suggest that climate changes brought about by global warming could significantly diminish rice yields.
- Archaeology
Rat DNA points to Pacific migrations
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA from Pacific rats supports a theory that ancestors of today's Polynesians migrated from Southeast Asia to a string of South Pacific islands in at least two separate dispersals.
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Watching the biological clock
Biologists now have a way to predict when a woman will start menopause.
- Health & Medicine
Protective enzyme has a downside: Asthma
The abnormal production of a parasite-fighting enzyme contributes to asthma.
- Archaeology
Mexican murals store magnetic data
Tiny magnetic particles in the pigments of some Mexican murals recorded the direction of Earth's magnetic field when the paint dried.
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Clearing Up Blurry Vision: Scientists gaze toward causes of myopia
Scientists are beginning to unravel the genetic mechanism that causes nearsightedness.
- Physics
Grainy Geyser: Tall squirts reveal sand’s liquid ways
Dropping a steel ball into fine, loosely packed sand produces towering jets of grains.
- Earth
Just a Tad Is Too Much: Less is worse for tadpoles exposed to chemicals
The herbicide atrazine is more likely to kill developing amphibians when it is highly diluted than when it's much more concentrated in aquatic environments.
- Anthropology
Living Long in the Tooth: Grandparents may have rocked late Stone Age
A new analysis of fossil teeth indicates that the number of people surviving long enough to become grandparents dramatically increased about 30,000 years ago.
- Agriculture
Plastic vs. Plants: Mulch method changes tomato’s gene activity
A suite of at least 10 genes in a tomato plant behaves differently depending on the farmer's mulch-and-fertilizer routine.
- Earth
City Heat: Urban areas’ warmth affects plant growth
Satellite observations of eastern North America show that plants in and around urban areas bud earlier in the spring and retain their foliage later in the fall than do plants in nearby rural settings.
- Planetary Science
Titanic Images, Groovy Shots: Cassini arrives at Saturn
After a 7-year, 3.5-billion-mile journey, the Cassini spacecraft last week slipped through a gap between two of the icy rings circling Saturn and became the first spacecraft to orbit the distant planet.
- Astronomy
Heavenly Passage
On June 8, the black dot of Venus passed across the face of the sun, the first time it did so in 122 years.
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Dying before Their Time
Genetically engineered mice that get prematurely old give hints to the causes of aging.
- Humans
Letters from the July 10, 2004, issue of Science News
Language of music The study by Hyde and Peretz about people inept at all things musical (“Brain roots of music depreciation,” SN: 5/8/04, p. 302: Brain roots of music depreciation) made me think of my spouse of 20 years. In addition to a lifetime of utter tone deafness, he also nearly didn’t receive his graduate […]
