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Nuts to Your
Health
November 21, 1998 | Volume 154 | Number 21
Cover: Most people savor nuts but worry about the
heavy load of fat that they pack. Such nutritional concerns may be displaced, based
on a spate of new clinical trials indicating that these fatty treats can bring about
healthy changes in cholesterol and other blood lipids. (Photo: David Hills, The
International Nut Council) |
 Click on this icon listed by each article to get full references and
sources. |
News of the Week:
Chunk
of Death-Dealing Asteroid Found
A meteorite found in the
Pacific Ocean appears to be a fragment of the asteroid that ended the reign of the
dinosaurs.
Self-motion perception heads for home
Sensations from the neck
and the inner ear may play critical roles in monitoring where you are headed.
Microbe linked to Alzheimer’s disease
The unexpected presence
of a pneumonia-causing bacterium in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease
hints the degenerative illness may have an infectious origin.
Climate treaty talks mark some progress
At a meeting in Buenos
Aires, negotiators reported making headway in working out how to implement a climate
treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States signed Nov. 12.
Sky map captures cosmic star glow
A new sky map portrays
starlight beyond the Milky Way over the history of the universe.
Laser interplay stokes fusion uncertainty
Laser versus laser
experiments show how beam interactions might hinder future attempts to spark nuclear
fusion in the laboratory.
Birds prefer walls for wild flirting
Spotted bowerbirds flirt
through a wall, even when researchers rearrange the courting ground.
High-pressure water triggers tremors
Tiny water droplets far
below the earth’s surface can break rock, says a new theory, and even set off
earthquakes.
TNT-sensing plastic exposes land mines
A new polymer that
detects trinitrotoluene, or TNT, could help in the search for millions of unexploded land
mines buried around the world.
Earth Science
Where has all the carbon gone?
The forests and wetlands
of North America may be sopping up a large fraction of the carbon dioxide emitted by
fossil fuel burning.
A rock that lies about its age
Geologists debate the age
of an Indian rock formation that may hold the oldest evidence of animal life.
Environment
Alien seaweed is aquarium escapee
Genetic tests match
aquarium algae to the agressive alien algae taking over the Mediterranean and distinguish
those seaweeds from wild members of the species.
U.S. ban urged for alien alga
A petition by 107
scientists asks the Interior Department to ban the importation and possession of an
environmentally dangerous seaweed currently in the aquarium trade.
Astronomy
Martian sand dunes: blowing in the wind
Viewing the north pole of
the Red Planet, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft provides the first evidence that sand
dunes there can change appearance over a few months.
Solar observatory almost fully recovered
Four months after ground
controllers lost contact with the spacecraft, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is
back in business.
High-Fat and Healthful
Scientists offer a nutty recipe for hale hearts and
slim physiques
New studies on the cardiovascular effects of nuts could transform the image
of these fatty treats from an indulgence to a health food.
Old MacDonald was an Ant
She knew about manure, herbicides, weeding,
and—maybe—raiding neighbor’s garden
Domesticating crops from the wild at least several times and sharing
cultivated varieties, ants developed farming about 50 million years before people.
Letters: A
Selection from Letters to the Editor
