October 4, 1997
News of the Week:
Mad Cow Disease, Human Illness Tied
Two studies solidify the connection between mad cow disease and a recent variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
Sources:
John Collinge
Department of Neurology
Imperial College School of Medicine
St. Mary's Hospital
London W2 1PG
United Kingdom
Robert G. Will
National CJD Surveillance Unit
Western General Hospital
Edinburgh EH9 3JF
United Kingdom
Satellite views Earth's living plumage
A new satellite monitors life in the oceans and on land. Sources:
Richard T. Barber
Gene C. Feldman
Duke University
Marine Laboratory
Beaufort, NC 28516
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Office of Public Affairs
Greenbelt Road
Greenbelt, MD 20771
U.S. paper money tends to grab cocaine crystals and cage them beneath the bill's surface.
Jack Demirgian Why greenbacks make good 'drug money'
Sources:
Analytical Chemistry Laboratory
Chemical Technology Division
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 South Cass Avenue
Building 211
Argonne, IL 60439-4835
Feds tackle toxic cell
The fish-killing micoorganism Pfiesteria gets its first hearing on Capitol Hill.
JoAnn M. Burkholder
Sources:
Department of Botany
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695
Atoms bounce back to form frigid cloud
A new type of atomic trap cools cesium atoms to 3 microkelvins and confines them to a thin cloud. Sources:
Rudolf Grimm
Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik
69029 Heidelberg
Germany
Deadly bacteria pop up in fruit flies
A bacteria that normally affects the reproduction of insects also comes in a form that destroys the adult fruit fly brain.
Seymour Benzer
Kyung-Tai Min
Scott L. O'Neill
John H. Werren
Sources:
Division of Biology 156-29
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125
Division of Biology 156-29
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125
Section of Vector Biology
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, CT 06520-8034
Biology Department
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
An alphabet for a letter-perfect protein
Sources:Only five amino acids out of the standard 20 are needed to form much of a properly shaped protein, indicating that the rules for protein folding are simpler than one would think.
David Baker
Department of Biochemistry
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Website: http://ganesh.bchem.Washington.edu/~baker/
Variety reigns in ancient hominid's skull
New fossil finds of Australopithecus boisei in Africa indicate that ancient hominid species encompassed considerable anatomical variation, a phenomenon that challenges current attempts to distinguish species among hominid fossils based on subtle skeletal differences.
Gen Suwa
Tim D. White
Sources:
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Tokyo
Hongo, Bunkyo-ku
Tokyo 113
Japan
Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
Hubble sizes up a lone neutron star
Astronomers have for the first time observed the visible-light emission from a solitary, quiescent neutron star and are estimating its size, which constrains models of its formation.
Lynn D. Matthews
Frederick M. Walter
Sources:
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Z=3800
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Z=3800
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800
Research Notes:
Biology
Hidden virus suspected in diabetes
Some cases of type 1 diabetes may result from the activation of genes that a virus inserted into a human chromosome.
Bernard Conrad
Sources:
Department of Genetics and Microbiology
University of Geneva Medical School
CH-1211 Geneva 4
Switzerland
A flowery toxin reveals its petals
Electron microscopy produces pictures of the bacterial toxin responsible for ulcers and shows how acid conditions alter it.
Timothy L. Cover
Sources:
Division of Infectious Diseases
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
A3310 Medical Center North
Nashville, TN 37232
Biomedicine
Smoke hurts kids' cholesterol status
Children at high risk of heart disease who live with a smoker have low concentrations of the protective cholesterol, HDL.
Ellis J. Neufeld
Sources:
Division of Hematology
Children's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Anti-inflammatory drugs overprescribed
A Canadian study finds that doctors recommend anti-inflammatory drugs when they are unnecessary and may cause problems.
Frank Davidoff
Sources:
American College of Physicians
Independence Mall West
Sixth Street at Race
Philadelphia, PA 19106-1572
Behavior
When mountains deceive
The Hawaiian island of Kauai harbors at least two volcanoes rather than a single one.
Robin T. Holcomb
Sources:
U.S. Geological Survey
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7940
Faster track for ozone layer protection
Representatives from more than 100 governments met in Montreal last month and agreed to tighten restrictions on several chemicals harmful to the ozone layer.
Brent Blackwelder
Sources:
Friends of the Earth U.S.
1025 Vermont Avenue, Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20005
Articles:
Sources:Livestock are developing a largely unrecognized biodiversity crisis.
Some 5 percent of the world's domesticated breeds are dying off annually--taking with them potentially valuable traits.
Carolyn J. Christman
Program Coordinator
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Box 477
Pittsboro, NC 27312
Hans-Peter Grunenfelder
Sicherung der landwirtschaftlichen ArtenVielfalt in Europa
Schneebergstrasse 17
CH-9000 St. Gallen
Switzerland
Keith Hammond
Initiative for Domestic Animal Diversity
Animal Production and Health Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome
Italy
Website: http://www.fao.org/dad-is
Robert Hawes
Animal, Veterinary, and Aquatic Sciences
University of Maine
5735 Hitchner Hall
Orono, ME 04469-5735
Institute for Agricultural Biodiversity
Luther College
720 College Drive
Decorah, IA 52101
Richard H.L. Lutwyche
Rare Breeds Survival Trust
National Agricultural Centre
Stoneleigh Park
Warwickshire CV8 2LG
United Kingdom
H. Duane Norman
Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory
Agricultural Research Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Beltsville, MD 20705-2350
Elaine Shirley
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776
The Big Chill
Does dust drive Earth's ice ages? A new theory of the ice ages sparks a heated debate.
Kenneth A. Farley
John Imbrie
Gordon J. MacDonald
Richard A. Muller
Sources:
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
Mail Stop 170-25
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125
Department of Geological Sciences
Brown University
38 Brown Street, Box R
Providence RI 02912
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
A-2361
Laxenburg, Austria
Department of Physics
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
Table of Contents - 10/4/97