More Stories from the October 28, 2006 issue
- Astronomy
Feeling the heat of an extrasolar planet
Astronomers have measured the temperature variation between the lit and unlit sides of a planet outside the solar system.
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Itsy bitsy genome
Researchers have sequenced the smallest genome yet discovered, a string of DNA belonging to a species of bacterium that lives inside sap-eating insects' guts.
- Physics
Electromagnetism could ease the flow in oil pipelines
A few minutes of exposure to a magnetic or electric field sharply reduces crude oil's viscosity for hours at a time.
- Animals
Ivory-billed hopes flit to Florida
There's no photo, but a team of ornithologists says that its sightings suggest that a few ivory-billed woodpeckers still live along the Choctawhatchee River in Florida.
- Health & Medicine
Dengue strikes United States
Texas has been hit with the first-ever outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the continental United States.
- Health & Medicine
Flu vaccine seems to work for kids under 6 months of age
Babies younger than 6 months appear fully capable of responding to a flu shot.
- Health & Medicine
Protecting against a difficult microbe
By using DNA from the bacterium Clostridium difficile, scientists have fashioned a vaccine against the microbe.
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Gene might underlie travelers’ diarrhea
Travelers to Mexico who get diarrhea are more likely than healthy travelers to have a particular variant form of the gene for the glycoprotein lactoferrin.
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Genome Buzz: Honeybee DNA raises social questions
Scientists have officially unveiled the DNA code of the western honeybee, the first genome to be sequenced for an animal with ultrastratified societies.
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Med-Start Kids: Pros, cons of Ritalin for preschool ADHD
A long-term study indicates that 3- to 5-year-olds with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder who are prescribed the stimulant Ritalin often show behavioral improvements but also display greater sensitivity to the drug's side effects than older children do.
- Paleontology
Mastodons in Musth: Tusks may chronicle battles between males
Damage in the fossil tusks of male mastodons suggests that the creatures engaged in fierce combat with rival males at a certain time of year each year of their adult lives.
- Health & Medicine
Lung Scan: CT may catch some treatable cancers
Computed tomography (CT) scans seem to catch lung cancer early in smokers, but questions remain about the screening procedure.
- Health & Medicine
Vanishing Devices: Doctors implant disappearing stents, heart patches
Novel heart devices fashioned mainly from materials that the body can absorb or break down have made their debut in heart patients.
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Trimming Down Cancer: Fat could hinder body’s fight against disease
Fatty tissue may secrete substances that make it harder for the body to battle cancer.
- Earth
A Whale’s Tale: Puzzling marine compounds are natural
Antique whale oil shows that some mysterious compounds that resemble DDT and PCBs are naturally produced.
- Animals
Why Play Dead?
Common wisdom dictates that playing dead discourages predators, but researchers are now thinking harder about how, or whether, that strategy really works.
- Planetary Science
Satanic Winds
Dust devils send prodigious amounts of dust into Earth's atmosphere, and on Mars the electric fields generated by the dusty vortices may actually stimulate changes in atmospheric chemistry that sterilize the soil.
- Humans
Letters from the October 28, 2006, issue of Science News
Slow down a minute “Braking news: Disks slow down stars” (SN: 8/12/06, p. 109) says that a magnetic linkage between spinning stars and the charged particles in the dusty disks that surround them slowed the spin of the stars, but says nothing about its effect on the disk. The law of conservation of angular momentum […]
