September 13, 1997
News of the Week:
The West Coast's Roving Real Estate
Sources:Much of British Columbia and southeast Alaska may once have been attached to Mexico.
Joseph L. Kirschvink
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125
A participant in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search discovered the largest known prime number, an 895,932-digit behemoth.
Chris K. Caldwell
Gordon Spence
George Woltman
Lucky choice turns up world-record prime
Sources:
Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN 38238
Website: http://www.utm.edu/~caldwell
Thorn Microwave Devices
Swallowfield Way
Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1DQ
United Kingdom
Website: http://www.rugeley.demon.co.uk/gimps/prime.htm
E-mail: woltman@magicnet.net
Website: http://www.mersenne.org/
Diminished repertoire cripples fungus
The disease-causing fungus C. albicans must switch back and forth between two different characteristic shapes in order to cause illness.
Gerald R. Fink
Alexander D. Johnson
Julia R. Kohler
Sources:
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nine Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
University of California, San Francisco
513 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94143-0414
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nine Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Drug sensitivity varies with ethnicity
Sources:People of different ethnic backgrounds respond differently to the pain-relief drug codeine, with some experiencing no effect at all.
Wendel L. Nelson
Department of Medicinal Chemistry
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Alastair J.J. Wood
Department of Pharmacology
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Room 552A, MRB
Nashville, TN 37232-6602
Spacewalkers restore some power to Mir
During a 6-hour spacewalk, crew members aboard the Mir space station reoriented two solar arrays, restoring some power to the troubled craft.
Marcia S. Smith
Charles P. Vick
Sources:
Congressional Research Service
Library of Congress
First and Independence Streets, S.E.
Washington, DC 20540
Federation of American Scientists
307 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E.
Washington, DC 20002
Toxic landfill may cause babies to be tiny
Exposures to toxic chemicals emanating from a hazardous waste site appear to reduce birth weights.
Michael Berry
Rich Cahill
Martin Kharrazi
Sources:
New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
Consumer and Environmental Health Services
210 S. Broad Street, 5th Floor
CN 360
Trenton, NJ 08625-0360
Environmental Protection Agency
290 Broadway, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10007-1877
Environmental Health Investigations Branch
California Department of Health Services
5900 Hollis Street, Suite E
Emeryville, CA 94608
Gene defect for muscle disorder identified
Researchers located the genetic mutation that causes early-onset torsion dystonia.
Susan B. Bressman
Laurie J. Ozelius
Sources:
Dystonia Clinical Research Center
Department of Neurology
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center
New York, NY 10032
Molecular Neurogenetics Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Departments of Neurology and Genetics and Neuroscience Program
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA 02114
Well-groomed rodents stay cool, calm
A rat's biological and behavioral responses to stress are set by the amount of grooming it received from its mother in the first weeks after birth.
Michael J. Meaney
Robert M. Sapolsky
Sources:
Developmental Neuroendocrinology Laboratory
Douglas Hospital Research Center
Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery
Faculty of Medicine
McGill University
Montreal H4H 1R3
Canada
Department of Biology
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
Research Notes:
Biology
When a tongue goes ballistic
Sources:A lungless salamander catches insects using an impressive set of muscles that fires the tongue ballistically.
Stephen M. Deban
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Department of Integrative Biology
3101 Valley Life Sciences Building
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-3160
Cockroach scent as status symbol
Sources:When the ingredients in a sex pheromone are altered, a cockroach's social standing changes.
Allen J. Moore
Department of Entomology
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40546-0091
Chemistry
Liquid-to-gel polymer delivers drugs
Sources:Injecting a gel capsule under the skin may serve as an alternative to intravenous delivery or surgical implantation.
Sung Wan Kim
Biomedical Polymers Research Building
Room 205
CCCD/Pharmaceutics
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
A test for tainted blood
Sources:A technique that detects the anticoagulant EDTA in minute blood samples could prove useful to forensic scientists.
Robin L. Sheppard
Analytical Toxicology
Cornell University
927 Warren Drive
Ithaca, NY 14850
Earth Science
Bonanza of Arctic Ocean data
Sources:The U.S. Navy released 25 years' worth of formerly secret information about the Arctic seafloor.
Garrett W. Brass
United States Arctic Research Commission
4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 630
Arlington, VA 22203
Hot springs provide hints of eruption
Thermal springs just off the coast of Montserrat showed signs of the mounting danger prior to the 1995 volcanic eruption.
David S. Cronan
Sources:
Department of Geology
Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine
London SW7 2BP
England
Science & Society
DOD's year 2000 vulnerabilities
Sources:Two new reports highlight the Defense Department's challenges in getting its computers to recognize dates after 1999.
General Accounting Office
P.O. Box 6015
Gaithersburg, MD 20884-6015
E-mail: info@www.gao.gov
Website: http://www.gao.gov
Want a job? Become a PhD
Sources:U.S. residents with doctorates have higher rates of employment than other segments of society.
Carolyn F. Shettle
National Science Foundation
Division of Science Resources Studies
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965
Arlington, VA 22230
E-mail: cshettle@nsf.gov
Articles:
Automated cars take their drivers for a ride
Sources:Cars that drive themselves down the highway hold the potential to reduce accidents, ease traffic congestion, and save fuel.
Dick Bishop
Program Manager for Vehicle Highway Automation Research and Development
Federal Highway Administration
HSR-10
6300 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA 22101
E-mail: dick.bishop@fhwa.dot.gov
Honda Corp. Public Relations
American Honda Motor Co.
1919 Torrance Boulevard
Torrance, CA 90501
Todd M. Jochem
Smith Hall
216 Robotics
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Website: http://www.navlab.org
Terry Quinlan
Test and Demonstration Manager
National Automated Highway System Consortium
P.O. Box 942873
Sacramento, CA 94273-0001
Website: http://nahsc.volpe.dot.gov/hindex.htm
Wei-Bin Zhang
California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH)
University of California, Berkeley
Richmond Field
Building 452
1357 S. 46th Street
Richmond, CA 94804
E-mail: wbzhang@its.berkeley.edu
Website: http://www.path.berkeley.edu
Automated Highway System Resources on the Web
Website: http://www.itsonline.com/ahstbl1.html
Federal Highway Administration NEXTEA reauthorization
Website: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization/index.htm
Partners in Recall
Elderly spouses build better memories through collaboration Elderly people can compensate for declining individual memories by intensifying their efforts at collaborative recall, particularly with their spouses.
Marilyn S. Albert
Paul B. Baltes
Laura L. Carstensen
Neil Charness
Michael Cole
Roger A. Dixon
Robert W. Levenson
Ursula M. Staudinger
Sources:
Departments of Psychiatry and Gerontology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Building 149
13th Street
Charlestown, MA 02129
Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education
Lentzeallee 94
14195 Berlin
Germany
Department of Psychology
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2245
Psychology Department
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1051
University of California, San Diego
LCHC Q092
La Jolla, CA 92093
Department of Psychology
University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3P5
Canada
Department of Psychology
3210 Tolman Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education
Lentzeallee 94
14195 Berlin
Germany
Table of Contents - 9/13/97