Solar Cloud Hits Earth's Magnetosphere

A billion-ton magnetic cloud hurled from the sun on Jan. 6 reached Earth 4 days later, dumping energy into and squeezing the planet's magnetosphere.

Search for science talent scores 40 finalists

Finalists in the 56th Westinghouse Science Talent Search are announced.

Drug could provide alternative to flu shot

Animal tests of a new oral drug show that it can cure influenza.

Continents grew early in Earth's history

Ancient Australian rocks reveal that continents appeared on Earth far sooner than previously thought.

Sight for sore eyes: A glaucoma gene

After a decade-long hunt, researchers have discovered a mutant gene that causes a rare, aggressive form of glaucoma and perhaps other versions of the disease.

Atom laser demonstrated in chilled drips

The detection of a matter-wave interference pattern demonstrates that the atoms of a Bose-Einstein condensate are in a coherent state and thus constitute an atom laser.

FDA allows heart health claims for oats

Low-fat oat-rich foods receive the first federally sanctioned health claim for a manufactured food.

Research Notes:

Biomedicine:

Diabetes results from suicidal cells

The immune cells that destroy insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells, and therefore cause diabetes, do so by inducing the islet cells to commit suicide.

The latest salvo in the prion debate

Not all mice afflicted with a neurological disorder similar to mad cow's disease exhibit accumulations of a protein thought to transmit the fatal disease.

Earth Science:

Is bigger better? The fossils speak up

Contrary to a popular evolutionary theory, organisms do not evolve larger bodies over geologic time.

Gearing up for more hurricanes

Researchers forecast an above-average number of Atlantic hurricanes in 1997.

Astronomy:

Lone stars

The Hubble Space Telescope has spied about 600 stars that belong to no galaxy, some 60 million light-years away in the Virgo cluster.

Of planets and planetary nebulas

Planetary nebulas -- generated by the winds blown out of dying stars -- show filaments, loops, and other features that may have been caused by gas jets from brown dwarfs and massive planets.

Seeking the source of gamma-ray bursts

Debate continues over whether gamma-ray bursts originate in the Milky Way or in a galaxy billions of years distant.

Articles:

Life's Closest Call

What caused the spectacular extinctions at the end of the Permian period?

Scientists are seeking to explain why vast numbers of organisms died out 250 million years ago.

Chinks in Digital Armor

Exploiting faults to break smart-card cryptosystems

Tampering with a smart card can force it into making errors in the calculations used for encrypting data, potentially allowing the code to be broken.

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