More Stories from the October 16, 2004 issue
- Health & Medicine
Human antibody halts SARS in hamsters
Human-derived antibodies can not only prevent infections when given in advance of SARS exposure but also mitigate the symptoms of an infection already in progress.
- Health & Medicine
Kids’ vaccine guards adults too, for now
Serious infections caused by pneumococcus have decreased in both children and adults since the introduction of a childhood vaccine against seven strains of the bacterium, but other pneumococcus strains are now becoming more prevalent among adults with HIV.
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New bacteria linked to vaginal infections
Several newly described bacteria appear to share much of the responsibility for causing a common infection in women.
- Health & Medicine
Drug-resistant staph causes more pneumonia
A recently discovered variant of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to some antibiotics became a major cause of severe pneumonia among people who caught the flu last winter.
- Earth
Extra rainfall may stem warming in Midwest
Increased precipitation in parts of the Midwest may reduce the temperature increases expected to occur in the next few decades as a result of global warming.
- Physics
To freeze this liquid, add heat
A wrong-headed mixture of liquid starch, water, and a solvent freezes when heated.
- Planetary Science
Martian water everywhere
Combining data taken from two craft orbiting Mars with images and spectra collected by one of the Mars rovers, a scientist has found evidence that a body of water greater in area than all the Great Lakes combined once covered the Red Planet.
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Verbal sighting in brains of the blind
Brain areas typically responsible for visual processing instead contribute to verbal skills in blind people.
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Trash to Treasure: Junk DNA influences eggs, early embryos
A type of DNA once thought to be little more than genetic clutter may play a role in gene expression in mammalian eggs and newly formed embryos.
- Planetary Science
Mars Rovers: New evidence of past water
Twin rovers on opposite sides of the Red Planet have found additional evidence that liquid water once flowed there.
- Chemistry
Breakdown: How Three Chemists Took the Prize
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their discovery of how cells mark proteins for destruction with a molecular tag called ubiquitin, otherwise known as the kiss of death.
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A.M. and P.M. Clocks: Fruit fly brain has double timekeepers
Two research teams have pinpointed one group of fly-brain neurons keeping time for morning activity and a different neuron group performing the same function for evening activity.
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Hearing Better in the Dark: Blindness fuels ability to place distant sounds
New evidence indicates that blind people estimate the locations of distant sounds more accurately than sighted people do, even if sight loss didn't occur until adolescence or young adulthood.
- Health & Medicine
Fat Fuels PCB Damage: Diet influences toxic effects leading to heart disease
Certain types of dietary fats can magnify PCB damage to artery cells in a way that sets the stage for cardiovascular disease.
- Earth
Change in the Weather? Wind farms might affect local climates
Large groups of power-generating windmills could increase wind speed, temperature, and ground-level evaporation, thereby influencing a region's climate.
- Health & Medicine
Dormant Cancer: Lack of a protein sends tumor cells to bed
Excess amounts of a protein called Myc triggers cancer in mice, but ratcheting back this supply sends the malignant cells into dormancy.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin D: What’s Enough?
Most researchers studying vitamin D agree that many people would benefit from more of the vitamin, but they haven't yet decided just how much.
- Humans
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Scientists and educators increasingly are using analyses of bad science in movies, as well as the good, to inform the public about scientific facts and principles.
- Humans
Letters from the October 16, 2004, issue of Science News
Hubble grumble The cover type “Farewell to Hubble?” (“End of the Line for Hubble?” SN: 7/24/04, p. 56: End of the Line for Hubble?) makes me wonder why we haven’t seen the headline “Farewell to the Current NASA Administrator?” The only reason I have heard for the cancellation of the planned servicing mission is “it’s […]
