More Stories from the October 14, 2006 issue
- Earth
Ancient hot spell is linked to copious carbon dioxide
A mineral that formed in some lakes during a lengthy and particularly warm period in Earth's past suggests that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were at that time at least triple those found in today's air.
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Right brain area linked to fairness
The ability to control selfish impulses in order to reject an unfair deal depends on a specific right brain area.
- Materials Science
A nanotechnology report card
Research on how nanotechnology affects human health and the environment must be expanded, a National Research Council report concludes.
- Health & Medicine
Novel approach fights leprosy
An antibiotic typically used to fight sinus infections shows remarkable potency against leprosy.
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Hotel-room surfaces can harbor viruses
Rhinovirus, which is responsible for roughly half of all common colds, survives on surfaces in hotel rooms for hours and can be transferred from there to people.
- Health & Medicine
Statins defend against fungus-caused sepsis
Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins might reduce the risk of dying from sepsis triggered by a fungal infection.
- Health & Medicine
Many infections tied to medical settings
More than one-fourth of skin or muscle infections that require hospitalization originate from microbes acquired in a clinic, hospital, or other medical-care setting.
- Humans
Smoke Out: Bartenders’ lungs appreciate ban
Pub workers in Scotland breathed easier and showed better respiratory health shortly after a nationwide ban on smoking inside public spaces went into effect.
- Health & Medicine
Life Blood: Drug stops mothers’ bleeding after births
A drug sometimes used to induce abortions can stem bleeding after childbirth.
- Tech
Teasing Apart Nanotubes: Fast-spun carbon fibers may feed an industry
Researchers have devised a way to sort carbon nanotubes by size and electronic properties.
- Math
Messiness Rules: In high dimensions, disorder packs tightest
In high dimensions, disorderly arrangements of spheres pack together more densely than orderly arrangements do.
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Well Traveled: Gene split arose early in domesticated goats
Two separate goat lineages inhabited the same site in southwestern Europe about 7,000 years ago, indicating that the extensive transport and mixing of domesticated goats began shortly after the origins of farming in the Near East.
- Animals
Courting Costs: Male prairie dogs seem too busy mating to dodge predators
Male prairie dogs get so distracted during mating season that predators find them easy pickings.
- Earth
Nearly Naked: Large swath of Pacific lacks seafloor sediment
Little or no sediment has accumulated on a broad patch of ocean bottom in the remote South Pacific, the result of a combination of factors that probably can't be found anywhere else on Earth.
- Chemistry
Pretty in Pictures: Details of molecular machinery gain Nobel
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to a researcher who determined the structure, in atomic detail, of RNA polymerase taken from yeast cells.
- Astronomy
Enigmatic Eruption
An erupting star near the outskirts of the Milky Way has become one of the most puzzling objects in the galaxy.
- Health & Medicine
Warming Up to Hyperthermia
By notching up a tumor's temperature a few degrees, scientists are boosting the power of radiation, chemotherapy, and cancer vaccines.
- Humans
Letters from the October 14, 2006, issue of Science News
Name game “Named medical trials garner extra attention” (SN: 8/5/06, p. 93), I think, has it backwards. It’s not that labeled trials are more likely to be funded. Rather, well-funded, large trials are more likely to be named. We research chemists label only the important projects. The name makes the project easier to track and […]
