More Stories from the June 23, 2007 issue
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes drug might hike heart risk
People who take rosiglitazone, a popular diabetes drug marketed as Avandia, may face an increased risk of heart attack.
- Archaeology
Ancient beads found in northern Africa
Perforated shells found in a Moroccan cave indicate that northern Africans made symbolic body ornaments 82,000 years ago, long before Europeans did.
- Animals
Moths mimic ‘Don’t eat me’ sounds
Moths that make clicking noises at predatory bats are mimicking a defensive signal made by other moths that click and also taste bad.
- Earth
Tree rings tell tale of megadroughts
Tree rings in ancient timber show that the Colorado Plateau experienced a 60-year drought in the 12th century.
- Materials Science
Heal thyself—again and again
A new self-healing material can repeatedly repair damage at the same spot.
- Animals
Clownfish noisemaker is new to science
Clownfish make "pop-pop-pop" noises at each other by clacking their teeth together in a novel way.
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New player in cancer risk
RNA snippets of a newly discovered type could be involved in the mechanisms of cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Fluorine highlights early tumors
Microscopic, fluorine-packed particles can make small, cancerous growths easier to detect.
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Crossing the Line: Technique could treat brain diseases
With the help of a molecule from the rabies virus, scientists have for the first time selectively ferried a drug across the blood-brain barrier to treat a neurological disease in mice.
- Computing
Mapping a Medusa: The Internet spreads its tentacles
After tracking how digital information weaves around the world, researchers have concluded that, structurally speaking, the Internet looks like a medusa jellyfish.
- Health & Medicine
Warning Sign: River blindness parasite shows resistance
The parasitic worm that causes river blindness seems to be developing resistance to the only drug that controls it.
- Paleontology
Winged dragon
A quarry on the Virginia–North Carolina border has yielded fossils of an unusual gliding reptile that lived in the region about 220 million years ago.
- Materials Science
Needling Cells: Stem cells could take their cues from silicon nanowires
Scientists have grown mouse stem cells on a bed of silicon nano-needles, hoping that they will be able to guide the cells' development through electrical stimulation.
- Chemistry
Beyond Ethanol: Synthetic fuel offers promising alternative
A faster, simpler manufacturing technique could make a synthetic biofuel into an even stronger competitor to ethanol.
- Paleontology
Jurassic CSI: Fossils indicate central nervous system damage
Fossils found in the head-thrown-back position, the so-called "dead bird" pose, probably died from central nervous system damage.
- Animals
Profiles in Courtship: Flirting male fish show their best sides
Courting male guppies that sport a tad more orange on one side of their bodies than on the other tend to flash that brighter side at females.
- Earth
Storm Center
Scientists aboard planes that flew into the cores of Katrina and other hurricanes in 2005 collected unprecedented data on the structure and development of the massive storms.
- Health & Medicine
Stents Stumble
After a meteoric rise, stents coated with drugs to prevent renarrowing of clogged arteries have begun to fall from favor among cardiologists.
- Humans
Letters from the June 23, 2007, issue of Science News
Bad start In “Violent Justice: Adult system fails young offenders” (SN: 4/21/07, p. 243), an association is found between young offenders being tried as adults and increased criminal offenses later. The implication is made that one thing causes the other. Perhaps a better interpretation of the data would be that, because not every young offender […]
