More Stories from the September 24, 2005 issue
- Astronomy
Keeping Hubble from being hobbled
NASA late last month shut down one of the aging Hubble Space Telescope's three gyros in an effort to extend its life.
- Ecosystems
West Nile virus fells endangered condor
A 3-month-old California condor chick, one of only four of this highly endangered species born in the wild this year, succumbed to a West Nile virus infection.
- Earth
Sow what? Climate reviews help farmers choose
African subsistence farmers are far likelier to leverage rainfall forecasts into better crop yields after attending workshops explaining the basis for the rain predictions.
- Health & Medicine
Deaths in early 1918 heralded flu pandemic
An examination of New York City death records from early last century suggests that the world's deadliest flu virus was on the loose in New York several months before it exploded into the 1918-1919 global pandemic.
- Planetary Science
Icy world found inside asteroid
New observations of Ceres, the largest known asteroid, hint that frozen water may account for as much as 25 percent of its interior.
- Anthropology
Genes tied to recent brain evolution
Two genes already known to influence brain size have undergone relatively recent, survival-enhancing modifications in people and appear to be still evolving.
- Earth
Liquid-detergent packets threaten children’s eyes
Sealed bags containing liquid detergent for single loads of laundry may be convenient, but if squeezed, they're liable to burst and spray their caustic contents into people's eyes.
- Humans
Docs shy away from telling kids they’re heavy
A major study has found that doctors don't routinely discuss a child's weight problems with the family, and that the younger the child the less likely the topic will come up.
-
Meds Alert: Old schizophrenia drug stands up to new ones
A new, much-touted generation of antipsychotic drugs generally yields no more improvement in people with schizophrenia than an older, cheaper antipsychotic medication does.
- Earth
Steep Degrade Ahead: Road salt threatens waters in Northeast
Using road salt to clear icy highways in the northeastern United States is increasingly tainting streams throughout the region.
- Planetary Science
Fresh Mars: Craft views new gullies, craters, and landslides
A comparison of images taken just a few years apart by a Mars orbiting spacecraft reveals recent landslides, freshly carved gullies, and a 20-meter-wide crater gouged in the planet's surface no earlier than 25 years ago.
- Earth
Dim View: Darkening skies a regional phenomenon
The decline in the solar radiation reaching Earth's surface in the latter half of the 20th century turns out to have been mostly a regional phenomenon.
- Animals
Balls of Fire: Bees carefully cook invaders to death
Honeybees that defend their colonies by killing wasps with body heat come within 5 degrees C of cooking themselves in the process.
- Earth
Organic Choice: Pesticides vanish from body after change in diet
Children can eliminate their bodies' loads of agricultural pesticides by eating organically grown products.
- Earth
Pack Rat Piles: Rodent rubbish provides ice age thermometer
Analyses of fossilized plant remnants collected by pack rats reveal that the Grand Canyon was much cooler than previously thought during the latter part of the last ice age.
- Health & Medicine
Sharpening the focus of mammograms
Digital mammography can detect up to one-fourth more cancers than traditional film mammography can in women who are under 50, haven't gone through menopause, or who have dense breast tissue.
-
Childhood’s End
In northern Thailand, parents send one or more of their daughters off to become prostitutes so that the girls will make enough money to improve the local status of their families, a finding with implications for programs aimed at stopping child prostitution.
- Plants
Save the Flowers
Now that breeders have created thousands of new ornamental-flower varieties, scientists are turning their attention to restoring the fragrances that fell victim to the process.
- Humans
Letters from the September 24, 2005, issue of Science News
Monkey see, monkey smell That monkeys get “weirded out” by seeing themselves in mirrors doesn’t seem unexpected (“Reflections of Primate Minds: Mirror images strike monkeys as special,” SN: 7/23/05, p. 53). Were a familiar or an unfamiliar same-sex capuchin seen, the test subject would be bombarded not just by visual images but also by smells […]
