More Stories from the July 28, 2007 issue
-
Antidepressants trim suicide tries
Treating depression with antidepressant drugs reduces the risk of suicide.
-
Old viruses have new tricks
Invading viruses can trick a cell into turning off its defense mechanisms.
- Earth
Erosion accelerates along Alaskan coast
Alaska's northern coast is falling into the sea at an accelerating rate.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s retinue: 60 and counting
A little moon, two kilometers across, is Saturn's 60th satellite.
- Health & Medicine
Perception is longevity
Mice lived longer when they were fooled into sensing lower insulin levels than they actually had.
- Humans
Universities seek armchair astronomers
Scientists are recruiting online help from the public to classify the shapes of 1 million galaxies in never-before-viewed photographs.
-
Weighting for Friends: Obesity spreads in social networks
Obesity spreads as a social contagion through networks of friends and relatives, apparently because associating with overweight people encourages a laxer attitude toward weight gain.
- Health & Medicine
Good Light: Sun early in life could protect against MS
Childhood exposure to direct sunshine may protect people against developing multiple sclerosis later.
- Earth
Stunting Growth: Ozone will trim plants’ carbon-storing power
Increasing ground-level ozone due to pollution will stifle the growth of vegetation in many regions, accelerating the buildup of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
- Materials Science
Sop Story: New porous gel soaks up heavy metal
A new porous gel efficiently removes mercury from contaminated water and may also have the ability to catalyze chemical reactions such as those that generate hydrogen for fuel.
- Health & Medicine
Grim Reap Purr: Nursing home feline senses the end
A nursing home cat in Rhode Island knows when the end is nigh, predicting with uncanny accuracy when residents will die.
-
Sweet Gatekeeper: Receptor depends on sugar and water
Water and sugar molecules play a previously unsuspected role in the way that a ubiquitous receptor passes chemical messages between cells.
- Astronomy
Heavenly Chemistry: Astronomers announce astrophysical anion
Astronomers' discovery of a rare negatively charged organic molecule sheds light on conditions in interstellar gas clouds, where amino acids, sugars, and other prebiologic compounds form.
- Physics
Slick serpent
Oil poured into a pan of the same liquid drags along a surrounding air layer, which can make it skip in and out of the surface before it mixes in.
- Animals
Not-So-Elementary Bee Mystery
Old-style epidemiology casework combines with an array of 21st-century lab tests in the search for clues to the disappearance of honeybees.
- Computing
Virtual Surgery
Computer simulations of blood flow in the heart allow doctors to test surgical innovations before trying them on patients.
- Humans
Letters from the July 28, 2007, issue of Science News
Gyro Q & A Doesn’t “Spinning into Control” (SN: 05/19/07, p. 312) on flywheels leave out a significant aspect: the gyroscope effects of a rotating large mass? Wouldn’t it be a benefit for moving installations (stabilization) and a problem for immobile installations? Lee HukillPalo Alto, Calif. In the article, the flywheels depicted appear to have […]
