More Stories from the November 4, 2000 issue
- Animals
Shielded cells help fish ignore noise
Fish can sort out the interesting ripples from the background rush of water currents through sensors shielded in canals that run along their flanks.
- Paleontology
Early Biped Fossil Pops Up in Europe
A newly described, nearly complete 290-million-year-old fossil of an ancient reptile pushes back the evidence for terrestrial bipedalism by 60 million years.
- Astronomy
Rendezvous gets more personal with Eros
Venturing closer to a space rock than any satellite has ever gone before, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker mission last week took the sharpest images ever recorded of an asteroid.
- Health & Medicine
Prostate enzyme triggers cancer drug
A new drug reverses advanced prostate cancer in mice by enlisting the aid of prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme found in most prostate tumors.
- Health & Medicine
Killing immune cells thwarts arthritis
Researchers have successfully treated people with rheumatoid arthritis by temporarily wiping out most of their antibody-producing immune cells.
- Physics
Signs of mass-giving particle get stronger
The promising search at a collider in Switzerland for the Higgs boson—the crucial and last undetected fundamental particle predicted by the central theory of particle physics—became even more of a cliff-hanger as a new, strong hint of the particle appeared on the eve of the machine's second scheduled demise.
- Anthropology
‘Y guy’ steps into human-evolution debate
The common ancestor of today's males lived in Africa between 35,000 and 89,000 years ago, according to a contested DNA analysis.
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Two aspects of sleep share a master
A molecular connection between the timing of sleep—a part of circadian rhythms—and how long animals slumber each day is demonstrated for the first time.
- Planetary Science
Threat to Titan mission deepens
If a communications problem between the Huygens probe and its mother craft is not corrected, as much as two-thirds of the data gathered by the probe during its 2004 descent through Titan's atmosphere could be lost.
- Planetary Science
New moons for Saturn
Astronomers reported the discovery of four new moons orbiting Saturn.
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Milked enzyme thwarts muscle disorder
Using an enzyme made in rabbit's milk, scientists have successfully treated a rare genetic disorder.
- Health & Medicine
Firms vie to treat genetic disease
Successful treatment of Fabry's disease—a rare, fatal genetic condition—prompts a law suit.
- Earth
Toxic color TVs and computer monitors
High concentrations of lead can leach from the X-ray-filtering glass used in picture tubes, suggesting that this glass should be treated as hazardous waste.
- Earth
Prenatal exposures affect sperm later
Boys exposed in the womb to hormone-mimicking pollutants may mature into men who produce impaired sperm.
- Chemistry
King Midas’ Modern Mourners
Chemistry resurrects—in Philadelphia—an ancient funeral banquet.
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