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Portrait of an EpidemicJanuary 31, 1998 | Volume 153 | Number 5 Cover: The Yanomami Indians are fighting for their lives as a tuberculosis epidemic rages in the heart of the Amazon. Researchers say their studies of the Yanomami may reveal how the human immune system reacted to this disease long ago. Page 73 (Photo: Alexandria O. de Sousa) |
Features:
Science Safari
How Inhaled Dust Harms the Lungs
Test-tube studies uncover a biological mechanism by which particles in air may lead to lung damage.
Uric acid linked to multiple sclerosis
Giving uric acid to mice with a disease resembling multiple sclerosis reduces paralysis.
Sign of spring: Science Finalists Picked
Ten high school girls and 30 boys last week got the phone calls they've been dreaming about: news that they'd beaten 1,541 other top science students to become finalists in the 57th Annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search.
Spotting a sparse crystal of trapped ions
A cloud of widely separated ions at low temperatures has the orderly cubic arrangement typical of many crystalline solids.
Spy Satellite plumbs secrets of Antarctica
CIA satellite photographs reveal significant changes in Antarctic ice flow.
Hormone signals the death of fat cells
The hormone leptin can trigger the brain to kill fat cells.
Expensive drug thwarts deadly lung ailment
Intravenous doses of a drug called prostacyclin may serve as a powerful weapon against primary pulmonary hypertension.
Family gives genetic clue to language
Scientists have taken a significant step toward specifying the first gene known to influence human speech and language capacities.
Research Notes:
Biomedicine
Appendectomy? Scan me first, Doc
CT scans improve appendix-related diagnoses, reducing unnecessary surgery.
Snoring impedes blood flow in brain
The obstruction of air passages that makes a person snore can sharply reduce blood flow to the brain, possibly boosting the risk of stroke.
Astronomy
From a meeting in Washington, D.C., of the American Astronomical Society
Mapping the universe
Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers may have accounted for all of the sources of visible light in the universe.
Dino death: A stellar weapon...
The gravitational tug of a star passing within a few light-years of the sun might have triggered comet showers near Earth.
...or a high-energy flash?
An astronomer muses that if a gamma-ray burst of sufficient energy passed close enough to our galaxy, it might have triggered a comet shower.
Articles:
Tuberculosis Outbreak
An ancient killer strikes a new population
Researchers study a fierce epidemic among the Yanomami Indians of Brazil.
In Yellowstone, the master adapter learns to deal with wolves
Once top dog in Yellowstone National Park, the coyote is now being preyed upon by the recently restored wolf.
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