September 27, 1997
News of the Week:
Computer Chips Take a Leap Forward
IBM is starting to manufacture computer chips that use copper instead of aluminum circuitry, making them faster, smaller, and cheaper.
William O'Leary
Sources:
IBM Microelectronics Division
Internal Zip 92B
1580 Route 52
Hopewell Junction, NY 12533-6531
New chemistry from tropical corals
A compound isolated from a rare marine coral has the same effect on cancer cells as the drug Taxol.
William H. Fenical
David J. Newman
Sources:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California
San Diego, CA 92903-0236
Natural Products Branch
National Cancer Institute
1003 7th Street, Suite 206
Frederick, MD 21702-1201
Satellites hint sun is growing stronger
Researchers debate whether the sun has brightened in the last decade.
Richard C. Willson
Sources:
Center for Climate Systems Research
Columbia University
2845 Windfall Avenue
Altadena, CA 91001
A gamma-ray burst's enduring fireball
Six months after its discovery, the visible-light counterpart to a gamma-ray burst endures, providing new clues that these flashes originate outside our galaxy.
Mario Livio
Bohdan Paczynski
Sources:
Space Telescope Science Institute
3700 San Martin Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218
Princeton University Observatory
Department of Astrophysics
124 Peyton Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544-1001
New treatments for macular degeneration
Researchers are testing three new approaches to treating wet macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.
Eugene de Juan
Dennis M. Marcus
Joan W. Miller
Sources:
Wilmer Opthalmological Institute
Department of Ophthalmology
Johns Hopkins University
Maumenee Building, Room 713
600 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287-9275
Department of Ophthalmology
Medical College of Georgia
Augusta, GA 30912
Department of Ophthalmology
Harvard Medical School
25 Shattuck Street
Boston, MA 02115
Brain region takes a hack at navigation
Images of the brains of London taxi drivers indicate that a person's ability to figure out the route to a destination depends on a brain region called the right hippocampus.
Eleanor A. Maguire
Sources:
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology
Institute of Neurology
12 Queen Square
London WC1N 3BG
England
Mice smoke out key emphysema enzyme
Mice lacking an enzyme normally made by immune cells ward off emphysema induced by cigarette smoke.
Steven D. Shapiro
Gordon L. Snider
Sources:
Departments of Internal Medicine, Cell Biology, and Physiology
Washington University School of Medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital
St. Louis, MO 63110
Boston Veterans Affairs Medical Center
150 South Huntington
Boston, MA 02130
Transgenic plants provoke petition
A coalition of organic farmers and environmental organizations petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind approvals of plants genetically engineered to manufacture a natural pesticide.
Paul Clarke
Albert Heier
Sources:
457 Washington Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10013
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20460
Research Notes:
Astronomy
A moon for Dionysus
Astronomers have found evidence that the near-Earth asteroid 3671 Dionysus has a moon of its own.
Gerhard Hahn
Stefano Mottola
Petr Pravec
Lenka Sarounova
Sources:
DLR-German Aerospace Research Establishment
Institute of Planetary Exploration
Rudower Chaussee, 5
D-12489 Berlin
Germany
DLR-German Aerospace Research Establishment
Institute of Planetary Exploration
Rudower Chaussee, 5
D-12489 Berlin
Germany
Astronomical Institute AS CR
CZ-25165 Ondrejov
Czech Republic
Astronomical Institute AS CR
CZ-25165 Ondrejov
Czech Republic
Water among the outer planets
The Infrared Space Observatory has measured the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
H. Feuchtgruber
Donald M. Hunten
Sources:
Max Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik
85748 Garching
Germany
Department of Planetary Sciences
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Biology
Spiders spurn firefly femmes fatales
Female fireflies of one species lure, then eat the males of another to acquire a biochemical defense against spiders.
Thomas Eisner
Sources:
Section of Neurobiology and Behavior
W347 Seeley G. Mudd Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
The burden of bee-ing an undertaker
The small percentage of bees that serve as undertakers -- removing deed bees from the hive -- appears to be a distinct cadre of workers that are developmentally ahead of their peers.
Gene E. Robinson
Sources:
Department of Entomology
University of Illinois
320 Morrill Hall
505 South Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Behavior
Meds may give attention a lasting boost
Benefits of amphetamine treatment for children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder extend beyond the medication period.
Christopher Gillberg
Michael Rutter
Sources:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
University of Goteborg
Annedals Clinics
S 413 45 Goteborg
Sweden
Medical Research Council Child Psychiatry Unit
Institute of Psychiatry
De Crespigny Park
London SE5 8AF
England
Articles:
What's behind the ocean blooms? Researchers are trying to determine the factors responsible for an increase in the frequency and extent of harmful algal growths in coastal waters.
Daniel G. Baden
JoAnn M. Burkholder
Fred C. Dobbs
Hans W. Paerl
Parke A. Rublee
Karen Steidinger
Frances M. Van Dolah
Jeffrey L.C. Wright
Sources:
National Institute of Environmental Health Services
Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
Department of Botany
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695
Website: http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/project/aquatic_botany/
Department of Oceanography, Room 122E
Old Dominion University
1054 West 47th Street
Norfolk, VA 23529-0276
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences Division
Department of Applied Sciences
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, NY 11973
Institute of Marine Sciences
University of North Carolina
3407 Arendell Street
Morehead City, NC 28557
University of North Carolina
412 Bruce M. Eberhart Building
Greensboro, NC 27412
Florida Marine Research Institute
100 Eighth Avenue, S.E.
St. Petersburg, FL 33701-5095
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Marine Fisheries Service
219 Fort Johnson Road
Charleston, SC 29412
National Research Council of Canada
Institute for Marine Biosciences
1411 Oxford Street
Halifax
Nova Scotia B3H 3Z1
Canada
Power Failure
What happens when muscle cells run out of fuel Muscle disease results when a cell's mitochondria malfunction.
Douglas C. Wallace
Sources:
Molecular Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
1462 Clifton Road, N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30322
Table of Contents - 9/27/97