October 18, 1997
News of the Week:
Ancient Ape Shuffles to Prominence
Upright walking, long considered a unique trait of the human evolutionary family, also evolved in an ancient ape that lived on a Mediterranean island.
Meike Kohler
Salvador Moya-Sola
David Pilbeam
Sources:
Institut de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont
c/Industrial, 23
08201 Sabadell
Spain
Institut de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont
c/Industrial, 23
08201 Sabadell
Spain
Department of Anthropology
Harvard University
1350 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
More vitamin C means fewer cataracts
Long-term use of vitamin C supplements appears to protect the eyes from the clouding effects of exposure to sunlight and oxygen.
Paul F. Jacques
Julie A. Mares-Perlman
Allen Taylor
Sources:
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
Tufts University
711 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
University of Wisconsin-Madison
610 North Walnut Street
405 WARF
Madison, WI 53705-2397
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
Tufts University
711 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111
El Nino cooks up unusual hurricane season
The ocean warming has helped Pacific hurricanes and hindered Atlantic storms.
Jerry D. Jarrell
Vernon E. Kousky
Sources:
National Hurricane Center
11691 S.W. 17th Street
Miami, FL 33165-2149
Weather Service Climate Prediction Center
5200 Auth Road
Camp Springs, MD 20746-4304
Scientists finally find where to scratch
Researchers in Europe report identifying a new kind of nerve fiber that is probably responsible for transmitting the sensation of itching.
H. Erik Torebjork
Sources:
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology
University of Uppsala
S-75185 Uppsala
Sweden
Unlocking secrets of the Martian interior
Two spacecraft exploring Mars--one just beginning its mission, the other more than 2 months beyond its 30-day expected life--have gained new findings about the inside of the Red Planet.
Jack Connerney
William Folkner
Ronald Greeley
Sources:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Mail Stop 695.0
Greenbelt, MD 20771
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mail Stop 238-700
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
Geology Department
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-1803
Simulated hydrogen flows free of friction
A computer model show that molecular hydrogen can be made to form a superfluid at temperatures near absolute zero.
David M. Ceperley
M. Carmen Gordillo
Sources:
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Department of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 North Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Department of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 North Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Leptin linked to onset of monthly cycles
Concentrations of the hormone leptin in the blood are linked to the age of girls at menarche.
Rose E. Frisch
Velimir Matkovic
Robert A. Steiner
Sources:
Harvard Center for Population Studies
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Bone and Mineral Metabolism Laboratory
Departments of Physical Medicine, Medicine, and Nutrition
Davis Medical Research Center
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology, Physiology and Biophysics, and Zoology
P.O. Box 356460
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-6460
It came from Earth: Green-blooded fish
Using a gene that bestows a glow on some jellyfish, investigators have made the blood cells of another aquatic animal, the zebrafish, shine a bright green.
Shuo Lin
Sources:
Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Medical College of Georgia
1120 15th Street
Augusta, GA 30912
Research Notes:
Biology
When North American birds diverged
The eastern and western variants of many North American songbirds seem to have gone their separate evolutionary ways much earlier than the last glacial period, which was thought to be responsible for the speciations.
John Klicka
Robert M. Zink
Sources:
J.F. Bell Museum of Natural History
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
University of Minnesota
1987 Upper Buford Circle
St. Paul, MN 55108-6097
J.F. Bell Museum of Natural History
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
University of Minnesota
1987 Upper Buford Circle
St. Paul, MN 55108-6097
Biomedicine
Teens, insulin, and heart disease
Insulin resistance in teens may indicate high risk of heart disease.
Alan R. Sinaiko
Sources:
Department of Pediatrics
University of Minnesota Medical School
BX 491 Mayo
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Heart risk and the sex hormones
The ratio of sex hormones correlates with high-risk factors for heart disease in black women, as it does in white and Hispanic women.
Katherine Sherif
Sources:
Allegheny University of the Health Sciences
3300 Henry Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19129
Pitting viruses against each other
Viruses engineered to infect only cells already infected by HIV may have therapeutic uses.
Karl-Klaus Conzelmann
Garry P. Nolan
John K. Rose
Sources:
Department of Clinical Virology
Federal Research Center for Virus Diseases of Animals
Paul-Ehrlich-Strasse 28
72076 Tubingen
Germany
Department of Molecular Pharmacology
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA 94305
Departments of Pathology and Cell Biology
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, CT 06510
Parkinson's protein in brain clumps
Lewy bodies, the mysterious clumps found inside the brain cells of people with Parkinson's disease, contain a protein called alpha-synuclein whose gene is abnormal in some inherited cases of the disease.
Maria Grazia Spillantini
Sources:
Medical Research Council Centre for Brain Repair
Department of Neurology
University of Cambridge
Robinson Way
Cambridge CB2 2PY
United Kingdom
Environment
Lacing food with an estrogen mimic
Polycarbonate plastics can leach a hormonelike pollutant into foods and drinks.
John E. Biles
Ana Soto
Sources:
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Office of Premarket Approval
HFS-248
200 C Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20204
Department of Anatomy and Cellular Biology
Tufts University School of Medicine
136 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02111
A pollutant that can alter growth
Prenatal exposure to a building block of some plastics can subtly alter growth and reproductive development in mice.
Frederick S. vom Saal
Sources:
Department of Biology
114 Lefevre Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
Articles:
Western notions of the mind may not translate to other cultures. New research suggests that a fondness for self-enhancement and other mental tendencies commonly observed in Western nations do not show up in Asian cultures that emphasize social connections among individuals.
Marilynn B. Brewer
Phoebe C. Ellsworth
Daniel T. Gilbert
Darrin R. Hehman
Steven J. Heine
Shinobu Kitayama
Takahiko Masuda
Richard A. Shweder
Sources:
Department of Psychology
Ohio State University
1885 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1222
Center for Group Dynamics
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Department of Psychology
Harvard University
William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Department of Psychology
University of British Columbia
2136 West Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4
Canada
Department of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
3815 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6196
Department of Psychology
Faculty of Integrated Human Studies
Kyoto University
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-01
Japan
Department of Psychology
Faculty of Integrated Human Studies
Kyoto University
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-01
Japan
Department of Psychology
University of Chicago
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
How two federally approved weight-loss drugs crashed Diet drugs are taken off the market in the wake of medical reports linking them to heart valve damage.
Lauralyn B. Cannistra
Heidi M. Connolly
Jack L. Crary
Robert H. Eckel
Alice H. Lichtenstein
Pam Ruff
Brian L. Strom
Raymond Woosley
Sources:
Brown University School of Medicine
38 Brown Street, Box R
Providence, RI 02912
Divisions of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine
Mayo Clinic
200 First Street, S.W.
Rochester, MN 55905
MeritCare Clinic North Fargo
2601 North Broadway
Fargo, ND 58102
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
4200 East 9th Avenue
P.O. Box B151
Denver, CO 80262
Human Nutrition Research Center
Tufts University
711 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111
MeritCare Clinic North Fargo
2601 North Broadway
Fargo, ND 58102
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021
Department of Pharmacology
Georgetown University Medical Center
3900 Reservoir Road, N.W.
Washington, DC 20007
Table of Contents - 10/18/97