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News of the Week:
Alcoholism
Shows Its Youthful Side
People who began drinking alcohol before age 15 exhibit much greater rates of serious alcohol problems than those who started imbibing at a later age.
Sources:
Deborah A. Dawson
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Division of Biometry and Epidemiology
6000 Executive Boulevard, Suite 514
Mail Stop Code 7003
Bethesda, MD 20892-7003Bridget F. Grant
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Division of Biometry and Epidemiology
6000 Executive Boulevard, Suite 514
Mail Stop Code 7003
Bethesda, MD 20892-7003
Built-in drugs could target tissues
Proteins containing non-natural, pharmaceutically active amino acids could serve as vehicles for delivering the drugs.
Sources:
Nediljko Budisa
Max-Planck Institut fur Biochemie
82152 Martinsried
Germany
E-mail: budisa@biochem.mpg.dePeter G. Shultz
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Chemistry
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tinnitus location found in
the brain
Using positron emission tomography, researchers have pinpointed where the brain registers a ringing in the ears.
Sources:
American Tinnitus Association
National Headquarters
P.O. Box 5
Portland, OR 97207-0005
Phone: (503) 248-9985
Fax: (503) 248-0024
E-mail: tinnitus@ata.orgAlan H. Lockwood
Veterans Administration Western New York Health Care System
Center for Positron Emission Tomography
115P VA Medical Center
3495 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14215
Mercury mystery solved when sparks fly
Light flashes of mercury in glass tubes, a phenomenon known as "barometer light," is caused by the buildup of static electricity.
Sources:
Seth J. Putterman
University of California, Los Angeles
Physics Department
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Reports raise questions about Martian rock
Two new studies chip away at--but do not entirely undermine--the case that a meteorite from Mars contains fossils of ancient life on the Red Planet.
Sources:
Jeffrey L. Bada
University of California, San Diego
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
La Jolla, CA 92083-0212A.J. Timothy Jull
University of Arizona
National Science Foundation
Arizona Academy Mass Spectrometer Facility
Tucson, AZ 85721
Novel X rays highlight clogging arteries
A new nuclear medicine technology appears capable of detecting atherosclerosis painlessly--before symptoms occur.
Sources:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Suite FO 2013
Washington, DC 20418
Web site: http://www.pnas.org
Artwork: Elmaleh et al.; PNAS 1998; 95:2:694; ©National Academy of SciencesH. William Strauss
Division of Nuclear Medicine
Stanford University Medical Center
300 Pasteur Drive, Room H0101
Stanford, CA 94305
Neutrinos to survey Earth's
radioactivity
Detecting antineutrinos generated by terrestrial radioactive decay could provide a direct measurement of Earth's radioactive heat production.
Sources:
Mark C. Chen
Physics Department
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544Raymond Jeanloz
Department of Geophysics
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720R.S. Raghavan
Bell Laboratories
Lucent Technologies
Murray Hill, NJ 07974
Protein gives the heads-up to frog embryos
By manipulating a newly discovered protein involved in the development of a head during embryo growth, investigators have produced tadpoles with enlarged heads, two heads, or no head at all.
Sources:
Christof Niehrs
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
Division of Molecular Embryology
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
D-69120 Heidelberg
Germany
Astronomy
Homing in on Milky Way's black hole
New measurements add to the evidence that the center of the galaxy contains a black hole as massive as 2.6 million suns.
Sources:
Andreas Eckart
Max-Planck Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik
Postfach 1603
D 85740 Garching b. Munchen
Germany
Andrea M. Ghez
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1562
Planet stages a comeback
One year after a researcher had cast doubt on the finding that a nearby, sunlike star has its own planet, three new studies uphold the initial discovery.
Sources:
David F. Gray
University of Western Ontario
Department of Physics and Astronomy
London, Ontario N6A 3K7
Canada
Biomedicine
Leptin: The new gut buster?
The obesity hormone leptin triggered rats to lose fat, especially from their abdomens.
Sources:
Luciano Rossetti
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Department of Medicine
Diabetes Research and Training Center
Bronx, NY 10461
Mother's milk contains leptin
A hormone thought to control obesity in humans has been discovered in breast milk.
Sources:
Karen L. Houseknecht
Purdue University
Department of Animal Sciences
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Cloning debate erupts anew
A scientist has proposed cloning a human being, prompting the president to urge a ban on such efforts.
Biology
Prozac works on clams and mussels
Giving Prozac to fingernail clams and zebra mussels jump-started reproductive behavior.
Sources:
Peter Fong
Gettysburg College
Department of Biology
Gettysburg , PA 17325-1486
Young armadillos just wanna be friends
Although adult armadillos tend to be hostile to each other, young armadillos calmly accept both related and unrelated juveniles.
Sources:
James Loughry
Valdosta State University
Department of Biology
Valdosta, GA 31698
Supermales even more superior outdoors
Plants that test out in a greenhouse as supermales may turn out to father even more seeds when set out in the wild.
Sources:
Randall J. Mitchell
University of Akron
Department of Biology
Akron, OH 44325-3908
A relative of nicotine eases pain
A compound related to nicotine may match morphine's pain-killing prowess and have fewer side effects.
Sources:
Stephen P. Arneric
Abbott Laboratories
Pharmaceutical Products Division
Neurological and Urological Diseases Research
Abbott Park, IL 60064-3500
The instruments of cell suicide
Two newly discovered proteins help a cell carve up its DNA when it kills itself.
Sources:
Shigekazu Nagata
Osaka Bioscience Institute
6-2-4 Furuedai
Suita, Osaka 565
JapanAndrew Wyllie
University of Edinburgh
Department of Pathology
Sir Alastair Currie CRC Laboratories
Edinburgh EH4 2XU
United Kingdom
Articles:
Archaeologists go underground for enlightenment on ancient Maya
Major Maya settlements were linked with caves, which served as landmarks of political power and spiritual meaning.
Sources:
Wendy Ashmore
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Anthropology
325 University Museum
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6398James E. Brady
George Washington University
Department of Anthropology
Washington, DC 20007Patricia McAnany
Boston University
Department of Archaeology
675 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215Keith Prufer
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Department of Anthropology
Carbondale, IL 62901-4502Philip Reeder
University of Nebraska
Department of Geography
Lincoln, NE 68588Vernon Scarborough
University of Cincinnati
Department of Anthropology
Mail Stop Code 380
Cincinnati, OH 45221
Highway, Heal Thyself
Cracking the code of self-healing asphalt could extend the life of roads
The chemical composition of asphalt might be modified to promote crack healing.
Sources:
Stephen J. Burns
University of Rochester
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Hopeman 235
Rochester, NY 14627
Web site: http://www.me.rochester.edu:8080/burns.htmlMargaret Cervarich
National Asphalt Pavement Association
5100 Forbes Boulevard
Lanham, MD 20706
Web site: http://www.hotmix.orgY. Richard Kim
North Carolina State University
Department of Civil Engineering
P.O. Box 7908
Raleigh, NC 27695-7908Dallas N. Little
Texas A&M University
Department of Civil Engineering
Infrastructure and Transportation Engineering
College Station, TX 77843-3136
Web site: http://info-civil.tamu.edu/inf-tran/matrial/default.htmRaymond Robertson
Western Research Institute
365 North 9th Street
Laramie, NY 82072-3380Richard A. Schapery
University of Texas
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
Austin, TX 78712
Web site: http://www.ae.utexas.edu/faculty/profs/schapery.html
