More Stories from the October 13, 2001 issue
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Tracking down bodies in the brain
A new report that a specific brain region orchestrates the recognition of human bodies and body parts stirs up a scientific debate over the neural workings of perception.
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Drunk drivers tow mental load
Individuals convicted of drunk driving often have a history of not only alcohol but also illicit drug abuse and other psychiatric disorders.
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Vesicles may help embryos take shape
Chemicals that shape developing embryos may hitch rides in vesicles called argosomes.
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NO says yes to breathing fast
A form of nitric oxide tells the brain when the body needs to breathe faster.
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Brain scans reveal human pheromones
Male and female brains react differently to two putative pheromones, compounds related to the hormones testosterone and estrogen.
- Health & Medicine
Detecting cancer risk with a chip
Researchers can use microcantilevers studded with antibodies that react to prostate specific antigen, or PSA, to analyze blood samples for signs of prostate cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin relative may aid stroke repair
Dehydroascorbic acid, a precursor of vitamin C, may help stroke patients retain use of parts of their brain at risk from the blood shut-off caused by strokes.
- Materials Science
Tiny detector finds hydrogen better
Researchers have made a miniature device that can quickly detect hydrogen leaks.
- Materials Science
Adhesive loses its stick with heat
A new type of epoxy adhesive loses its stickiness when heated, allowing easy separation of materials that were once tightly bonded.
- Health & Medicine
Sperm Protein May Lead to Male Pill
A protein that helps sperm move their tails may be a perfect target for a male contraceptive.
- Astronomy
Distant spiral galaxy poses for Gemini
The newly operating Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph instrument on the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, took a high-resolution composite photograph of a galaxy 30 million light-years away.
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Sound learning may hinge on cue contrasts
Training yields much more improvement in the ability to discriminate subtle differences in the loudness of sounds entering the right and left ears than in the timing of sounds arriving in each ear, a finding with implications for treating some speech and language disorders.
- Animals
Wild gerbils pollinate African desert lily
Scientists in South Africa have found the first known examples of gerbils pollinating a flower.
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- Astronomy
New alcohol added to space-stuff catalog
Researchers have discovered the molecule vinyl alcohol in space.
- Paleontology
Large shadows fell on Cretaceous landscape
Paleontologists have unearthed the remains of what they believe could be the largest flying creature yet discovered—a 12-meter-wingspan pterosaur.
- Health & Medicine
Nobel prize: Physiology or medicine
The 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to three researchers who pioneered work in cell division.
- Physics
Nobel prize: Physics
Three scientists have jointly won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics for creating the first samples, 6 years ago, of a long-sought and strange state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.
- Chemistry
Nobel prize: Chemistry
The 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognizes the development of molecules for catalyzing fundamental reactions used to make countless pharmaceuticals.
- Astronomy
A Cosmic Crisis?
Astronomers appear to have a heavenly crisis on their hands, and it concerns material they can't even detect.
- Chemistry
Burned by Flame Retardants?
One particular class of flame retardants—polybrominated diphenyl ethers—is accumulating at alarming rates in the environment, taints human breast milk, and has toxic effects similar to the now-banned PCBs.
