More Stories from the November 8, 2008 issue
- Earth
A near-record Arctic melting
This summer, the area covered by Arctic sea ice dropped to its second-lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979.
- Earth
Earthquake history recorded in stalagmites
Where stalagmites start and stop in caves could offer more precise clues about when major earthquakes have hit (and could again hit) the Midwest.
- Earth
When trees grew in Antarctica
Fossils of trees that grew in Antarctica millions of years ago suggest a growth pattern much different than modern trees.
- Life
Tough times for mammals
Between a fifth and a third of the world’s mammal species face the threat of extinction.
- Earth
World’s largest tsunami debris
Seven immense coral boulders — one of them a three-story-tall, 1,200-metric-ton monster — have been found far inland on a Tongan island and may be the world's largest tsunami debris.
- Planetary Science
New angles on Mercury
The NASA MESSENGER spacecraft completed its second flyby of Mercury, yielding crisp new images of a large swath of the planet not seen before.
- Health & Medicine
Flu shot in pregnancy protects newborns
Mothers-to-be impart antibodies to offspring that pay dividends later
- Humans
New hand, same brain map
An investigation of a man who received a successful hand transplant suggests that reorganization of sensory maps in the brain following amputation can be reversed in short order.
- Life
Community of one
Scientists have discovered how a single bacterial species living in a gold mine in South Africa survives on its own. Its genome contains everything it needs to live independently.
- Life
Parenthood: Male sharks need not apply
A second case of a virgin shark birth suggests some female sharks may be able to reproduce without males.
- Math
Numbers don’t add up for U.S. girls
Culture may turn potentially high achievers away from math, new study suggests.
- Math
An infinite beautiful mind
Theorem identifies cases in which infinite-choice games will have at least one Nash equilibrium.
- Health & Medicine
Bad air for growing brains and minds
Preliminary evidence suggests that children’s regular exposure to heavy air pollution can be accompanied by brain inflammation and lowered scores on intelligence tests.
- Earth
Salinity sensors
Trace elements in the carbonate shells of freshwater mussels could serve as an archive of road salt pollution.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin D deficiency
Parkinson’s disease patients are more commonly lacking in vitamin D than Alzheimer’s patients or healthy people.
- Space
Sniping at Jupiter
Giant Jupiter, often thought to protect the inner planets from space debris, may sometimes acts as a sniper, hurling material toward Earth.
- Space
A comet doubleheader
Astronomers have discovered the first comet that appears to be a contact binary — two chunks somehow held together by a narrow neck of material.
- Planetary Science
So close, yet so far away
Astronomers have found, in the frozen reaches beyond Neptune, two gravitationally bound objects that compose the most widely spaced binary system known in the solar system.
- Planetary Science
Huge cyclone churns at Saturn’s north pole
Planetary scientists have gotten their closest look yet at polar storms on the ringed planet. These polar cyclones are big enough to engulf Earth.
- Humans
Infectious finds at ancient site
A DNA analysis of skeletons found at a submerged Israeli site produces the earliest known evidence of human tuberculosis, now known to have existed at a 9,000-year-old farming settlement.
- Space
Hubble revives
A plan to switch the Hubble Space Telescope to a backup system works, waking up the telescope after more than two weeks of silence.
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria that do logic
A team engineers microbes to perform AND, OR, NAND and NOR logic operations.
- Earth
Primordial soup lives again
Fifty-five years later, new analyses of leftovers from Stanley Miller's famous 'primordial soup' experiment suggest that life could have originated near volcanoes.
- Life
Fossil find may document largest snake
Rocks beneath a coal mine in Colombia have yielded fossils of what could be the world's largest snake, a 12.8-meter–long behemoth that's a relative of today's boa constrictors.
- Humans
Rumors of Gulf War Syndrome
British Gulf War veterans responded to military secrecy by talking among themselves about their health problems. Through rumor, the vets collectively defined the controversial ailment known as Gulf War Syndrome, a new study suggests.
- Humans
Elephants’ struggle with poaching lingers on
Even as African elephants struggle to recover from decades-old poaching, the animals face new and renewed threats today.
- Tech
Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency by Kelly A. Joyce
Cornell Univ. Press, 2008, 198 p., $21.95.
- Plants
Don’t Touch That: The Book of Gross, Poisonous, and Downright Icky Plants and Critters by Jeff Day
Chicago Review Press, 2008, 108 p., $9.95.
- Tech
Neuroengineering the Future: Virtual Minds and the Creation of Immortality by Bruce F. Katz
Infinity Science Press, 2008, 389 p., $49.95.
- Physics
Facts and Speculations in Cosmology by Jayant V. Narlikar and Geoffrey Burbidge
Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008, 287 p., $60.
-
-
- Chemistry
Nicotine’s new appeal
Mimicking the addictive compound’s action in the brain could lead to new drugs for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.
- Chemistry
Long Live Plastics
With plastics in museums decomposing, a new effort seeks to halt the demise of materials commonly thought to be unalterable.
- Tech
Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years by Vaclav Smil
MIT Press, 2008, 307 p., $29.95.
