More Stories from the September 7, 2002 issue
- Anthropology
Gene change hints at brain evolution
A genetic mutation found only in humans first appeared around 2.8 million years ago, perhaps setting the stage for brain enlargement in the Homo lineage.
- Health & Medicine
Pet exposure may reduce allergies
Exposing children to cats or dogs at an early age may make them less prone to allergies later in life.
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Grief travels different paths
A rare study of elderly individuals before and after the death of their spouses finds that a surprisingly large number stayed on an even emotional keel.
- Earth
Uncertainty returns over sex-change fish
Scientists question whether a potentially gender-bending hormone found in polluted Florida streams is responsible for masculinized female fish.
- Physics
Clues to exotic particles found again
Although a correction to theory last year watered down its results, further analysis of a muon experiment still provides hints of new subatomic particles.
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Hear, hear: Key ear part regenerates
Hairlike projections that allow ears to detect sounds regenerate every 2 days.
- Animals
Blame winter for the vanishing sparrows
Changes in winter farming practices may help explain a puzzling drop in number of rural house sparrows in southern England.
- Physics
Superconductor has odd electron pairing
Although electrons pair up in many superconductors, there's one in which they join together in two different ways, new calculations confirm.
- Health & Medicine
Stroke Stopper: New vaccine curbs blood vessel damage in lab animals
A vaccine that desensitizes the immune system to a protein inside blood vessels prevents some strokes in laboratory rats.
- Animals
Ant Enforcers: To call in punishment, top ant smears rival
In Brazilian ant colonies where a female has to fight her way to the top, she stays in power through some judicious gang violence.
- Planetary Science
Pluto and the Occult: Rare events illuminate Pluto’s atmosphere
Twice in the past month, astronomers were given a rare opportunity to peer through the tenuous atmosphere of Pluto.
- Anthropology
Lost-and-Found Fossil Tot: Neandertal baby rises from French archive
The approximately 40,000-year-old skeleton of a Neandertal baby, filed and forgotten in a French museum for nearly 90 years, has been recovered by an anthropologist.
- Physics
Bitty Beacon: Wee disks probe materials at microscales
Illuminated by lasers, disks no larger than red blood cells can project rotating beams bright enough to create a light show in a darkened room.
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Chimp Change: Did an HIV-like virus ravage early chimps?
Modern chimpanzees may be the offspring of survivors of an HIV-like pandemic that took place 2 million years ago.
- Chemistry
Wine Tasting: Instrument can sniff out vinegar in sealed wine
A new system could determine whether a sealed bottle of wine has turned to vinegar.
- Health & Medicine
Arctic Sneeze: Greenlanders’ allergies are increasing
Allergies in Greenland nearly doubled from 1987 to 1998.
- Health & Medicine
Missed ZZZ’s, More Disease?
New evidence suggests that chronic lack of sleep may be as important as poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the development of chronic illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
- Tech
Pocket Sockets
Keenly aware of user frustration with the short-lived batteries in cell phones and other portable electronics, researchers are rushing to work out the bugs in tiny fuel-cell power plants that will be as small as batteries—but last a lot longer and be refuelable.
