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July 12, 1997
Postcards from the Red PlanetFollowing a successful landing on July 4, the Mars Pathfinder and its rover began exploring their surroundings.
Information about the Mars Pathfinder mission and the latest data and photographs are available at http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/, or see http://mars.sgi.com/default.html for alternative locations.
A protein found in the seminal fluid of male fruit flies is crucial to the female fly's ability to store sperm for later use.
Deborah M. Neubaum
Genetics and Development
Cornell University
421 Biotech
Ithaca, NY 14850
Near its melting point, the crystal structure of the molecule cubane looks unlike other solids of its type.
Philip E. Eaton
Department of Chemistry
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL 60637
Peter M. Gehring
National Institute for Standards and Technology
Center for Neutron Research
Building 235, Room E-151
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
E-mail: peter@rrdstrad.nist.gov
Chronic high blood pressure shrinks brain tissue, hurting memory and language capabilities in senior citizens.
Gene E. Alexander
National Institute on Aging
Laboratory of Neurosciences
Building 10, Room 6C414
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892
Gary E. Swan
Center for Health Sciences
SRI International
33 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Brains show signs of two bilingual roadsPeople who learn two languages as children appear to rely on a common part of the brain for both, whereas a separate patch of brain facilitates the use of a second language learned in adulthood.
Joy Hirsch
Department of Neurology
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021
Robert J. Zatorre
Department of Neuropsychology
Montreal Neurological Hospital
3801 University
Montreal, Quebec H3A2B4
Canada
A lyme disease-causing bacterium steals an enzyme from its mammalian host and uses it to travel within an insect.
Jorge L. Benach
Department of Pathology
Health Sciences Center
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794
Mark Klempner
Division of Microbial Pathogenesis
Tufts New England Medical Center
750 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111-1533
Kathleen A. McDonough
Division of Microbial Pathogenesis
David Axelrod Institute
WCLR/NYSDOH
New Scotland Avenue
P.O. Box 22002
Albany, NY 12201-2002
Justin D. Radolf
Division of Microbial Pathogenesis
Division of Infectious Disease
G5.238 University of Texas Health Science Center
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75235-7200
Late last month, the NEAR spacecraft took some 500 snapshots of an asteroid called 431 Mathilde.
Joseph Veverka
Department of Astronomy
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-6801
Earth is locked in a gravitational dance with an asteroid that circles the sun.
Peter A. Weigert
Department of Physics and Astronomy
York University
4700 Keele Street
North York, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada
At least one virus has developed a way to circumvent an intestinal coating similar to human mucin that insects use to protect themselves from infection.
Robert R. Granados
Boyce Thompson Institute
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Dissolution of the relationship between the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and Human Genome Sciences, Inc., has allowed TIGR to release DNA sequence data for several microbes.
J. Craig Venter
The Institute for Genomic Research
9712 Medical Center Drive
Rockville, MD 20850
Because patent and copyright charges do not recover the cost of processing applications, Congress recommends raising fees.
Asian elementary-school children outperform the rest of the world in science and math.
Albert Beaton
CSTEEP
Campion 320
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02167
Website: http://www.ed.gov/NCES/timss
Segregation of once-captive orangutans may prove healthier than reintegration into wild populations.
Carey P. Yeager
Louis Calder Center
Fordham University
Box K
53 Whippoorwill Road
Armonk, NY 10504
The federal government has set up a website to accept reports from anyone who spots amphibians exhibiting malformations.
North American Reporting Center for Amphibian Malformations
Northern Prairie Science Center
Biological Resources Division
U.S. Geological Survey
Jamestown, ND 58401
Website: http://www.npsc.nbs.gov/narcam
Phone: 1-800-238-9801
The Bitter TruthDo some people inherit a distaste for broccoli?
Supertasters shun certain foods containing bitter-tasting compounds, some of which may ward off cancer.
Linda Bartoshuk
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, CT 06520
Paul Breslin
Monell Chemical Senses Center
3500 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Adam Drewnowskibr
Human Nutrition Program
School of Public Health
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
A volatile world may have forged minds that make a virtue of uncertainty
Repeated environmental changes over the past 5 million years may have sparked the evolution of human brains tailored to dealing with uncertain conditions.
Peter Andrews
British Museum (Natural History)
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD
England
James Cheverud
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO 63110
Peter deMenocal
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Palisades, NY 10964
Steven R. Leigh
Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois
Urbana, IL 61801
Lori Marino
Department of Biology
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
Richard Potts
Department of Anthropology
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
Kaye E. Reed
Institute of Human Origins
1288 Ninth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
Elisabeth S. Vrba
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Yale University
P.O. Box 6666
New Haven, CT 06511
Table of Contents - 7/12/97
