More Stories from the March 23, 2002 issue
- Physics
Computer simulates full nuclear blast
In a classified nuclear-weapon experiment, the world's fastest computer simulated a thermonuclear blast in three dimensions.
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Clones face uncertain future
Scientists have cloned a cat, but new studies suggest that cloned animals have shortened lifespans.
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When brains wring colors from words
Brain-scan data indicate that one type of synesthesia, in which people involuntarily see vivid colors while listening to spoken words, is more like a color hallucination than an attempt to imagine colors.
- Health & Medicine
Clot busters may put elderly people at risk
Very elderly people who get clot-dissolving drugs immediately after a heart attack are more likely to die during their hospital stay than similar-age patients who don't get them.
- Computing
Finding networks within networks
A new mathematical procedure, or algorithm, picks out those members within a larger network—for instance, related sites on the World Wide Web—that have especially close ties.
- Paleontology
Early hunters are guilty as charged
Scientists find that hunting is the likely cause of New Zealand's prehistoric bird extinctions rather than habitat destruction or pest introduction.
- Health & Medicine
Computer sharing tackles anthrax
A drug-discovery effort using more than a million personal computers worldwide has identified thousands of compounds that could form the basis of a cure for anthrax.
- Anthropology
Unified Erectus: Fossil suggests single human ancestor
A newly found fossil skull may clear up an ongoing debate about whether the human ancestor Homo erectus was a single or several species.
- Health & Medicine
Brave New Drug: Compound stops cowpox and smallpox viruses
A new drug called HDP-CDV stops smallpox virus from replicating in lab tests and cowpox virus from replicating in mice, suggesting it could work as a treatment for smallpox in people.
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Microbes Fire an Oozie: Slime engines may push bacteria along
Some bacteria may propel themselves with slime engines: clusters of nozzles at the ends of the microbes that exude viscous goop.
- Paleontology
Old Frilly Face: Triceratops’ relative fills fossil-record gap
Fossils of a creature the size of a Texas jackrabbit cast new light on the early evolution of a group of horned dinosaurs that include the 8-meter-long Triceratops.
- Animals
Leave It to Evolution: Duplicated gene aids odd monkey diet
A duplicated gene that has rapidly evolved helps certain monkey species thrive on a diet of leaves.
- Earth
A Confluence of Contaminants: Streams’ organic mix may pose environmental risk
The combined effects of at least some of several dozen organic contaminants newly identified in U.S. streams may pose risks to aquatic organisms.
- Animals
Cold Hamsters: Wild species boosts immunity for winter
Hamsters that have to survive winter outdoors in Siberia rev up their immune systems, including their response to psychological stress, when days grow short.
- Earth
Water for the Rock
A long-popular theory about how Earth got wet—that the oceans are puddles left by an ancient rain of comets—doesn't seem to hold water, and new hypotheses suggest that the celestial pantry is now empty of a key ingredient in the recipe for Earth.
- Physics
The Black Hole Next Door
Microscopic black holes—fleeting replicas of the huge, matter-gobbling ones in space—may be detected soon in our atmosphere and at a big particle collider now being built.
