More Stories from the June 25, 2005 issue
- Planetary Science
Opportunity rolls out of Purgatory
After being stuck for nearly 5 weeks, the Mars rover Opportunity has freed itself from a sand trap on the Red Planet.
- Physics
Probing chemical signatures in an earthy way
Scientists have performed nuclear magnetic resonance analysis using Earth's magnetic field.
- Health & Medicine
Cocaine abusers get more heart aneurysms
Regular cocaine users are about four times as likely as nonusers to have an aneurysm in a coronary artery.
- Health & Medicine
Heart attack treatment: Better late than never
A new study contradicts the notion that heart attacks run their course in less than a day and suggests that even delayed treatment can preserve endangered heart tissue.
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Biofilm-producing bacteria could stabilize buildings
Bacteria that ooze a sticky matrix could help stabilize the soil beneath structures in earthquake-prone areas.
- Health & Medicine
Raisins may combat cavity-causing bacteria
Raisins may fight the bacteria that cause cavities rather than contribute to tooth decay.
- Health & Medicine
Ready-to-eat spinach bears tough microbes
Bagged spinach may contain a significant number of bacteria, many of which are resistant to several antibiotics.
- Health & Medicine
Alcohol increases bacterium’s virulence
Drinking alcohol can increase the ability of one type of bacteria to cause disease.
- Paleontology
Killer Bite: Ancient, tiny mammal probably used venom
Paleontologists have unearthed the remains of an ancient, mouse-size mammal that seems to have had a venomous bite.
- Animals
Dee for Danger: Chickadees add notes as threat grows
Chickadees change their alarm calls depending on how serious a lurking predator seems.
- Health & Medicine
Attack on Elephantiasis: Antibiotic offers weapon against tropical scourge
An antibiotic called doxycycline can cure people of elephantiasis, a parasitic disease, by killing the bacterium that the parasite needs to survive.
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Making a Muscle: Engineered fibers grow in the lab and in mice
Scientists have created slivers of muscle that produce their own network of blood vessels.
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Grow in the Dark: Bottom-dwelling bacterium survives on geothermal glow
A newly described species of photosynthetic microorganism uses light from hydrothermal vents in the deep sea to power its metabolism, making it the first such organism to use a light source other than the sun.
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Personable Brain Cells: Neurons as virtuosos of face, object recognition
Individual neurons in one part of the brain may assist in forming memories for specific sights, including the faces of famous people and images of well-known buildings.
- Materials Science
Lube Tune-Up: Motor oil from recycled plastic could improve automotive-fuel efficiency
Chemists have developed a technique for making high-performance lubricating oils from recycled plastic.
- Health & Medicine
A Matter of Time
Some patients are diagnosed with severe heart attacks in or near hospitals that can't offer them the best treatment, but is emergency transport to a better-equipped facility worth the delay?
- Chemistry
Energy on Ice
Recent efforts to unlock a frozen source of natural gas deep under the permafrost and ocean floor have energized prospects for a methane-hydrate industry.
- Humans
Letters from the June 25, 2005, issue of Science News
Dark secret? “Dark Influence: Most of the universe’s matter is out of sight, but not out of mind” (SN: 4/23/05, p. 264) made me wonder about the possibility of a continuum of matter. Could part of the problem in identifying dark matter be that only part of the spectrum of matter is observable by our […]
