| Sources | References |
News of the Week:
How Inhaled Dust Harms the Lungs
Test-tube studies uncover a biological mechanism by which particles in air may lead to lung damage.
Sources:
Daniel L. Costa
National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory
MD82, Experimental Toxicology Division
Pulmonary Toxicology Branch
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
Andrij Holian
University of Texas
Department of Internal Medicine
Houston Health Science Center
1.276 MSB
6431 Fannin
Houston, TX 77030
E-mail: aholian@heart.med.uth.tmc.edu
John Vandenberg
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (MD-51A)
National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
Uric acid linked to multiple sclerosis
Giving uric acid to mice with a disease resembling multiple sclerosis reduces paralysis.
Sources:
D. Craig Hooper
Thomas Jefferson University
Department of Microbiology
Center for Neurovirology
Philadelphia, PA 19107-6799
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.
Sources:
Wayne M. Itano
Time and Frequency Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Boulder, CO 80303
John Schiffer
Physics Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL 60637
Spy Satellite plumbs secrets of Antarctica
CIA satellite photographs reveal significant changes in Antarctic ice flow.
Sources:
Robert Bindschadler
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Mail Stop Code 971
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Hormone signals the death of fat cells
The hormone leptin can trigger the brain to kill fat cells.
Sources:
Clifton A. Baile
University of Georgia
Department of Food and Nutrition
Livestock - Poultry Building
Athens, GA 30602
Expensive drug thwarts deadly lung ailment
Intravenous doses of a drug called prostacyclin may serve as a powerful weapon against primary pulmonary hypertension.
Sources:
Robyn J. Barst
Columbia University Medical Center
Department of Pediatric Cardiology
3959 Broadway
New York, NY 10032
Alfred P. Fishman
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania Hospital
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Valerie V. McLaughlin
Rush Medical College
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center
Rush Heart Institute
Center for Pulmonary Heart Disease
1725 West Harrison Street, Suite 020
Chicago, IL 60612-3824
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.
Sources:
Simon E. Fisher
University of Oxford
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics
Windmill Road
Oxford OX3 7BN
United Kingdom
Anthony P. Monaco
University of Oxford
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics
Windmill Road
Oxford OX3 7BN
United Kingdom
Faraneh Vargha-Khadem
The Wolfson Centre
Institute of Child Health
Cognitive Neuroscience Unit
Mecklenburgh Square
London WC1N 2AP
United Kingdom
Research Notes:
Biomedicine
Appendectomy? Scan me first, Doc
CT scans improve appendix-related diagnoses, reducing unnecessary surgery.
Sources:
Patrick M. Rao
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department of Radiology
32 Fruit Street
Boston, MA 02114
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.
Sources:
Kingman P. Strohl
Case Western Reserve University
Department of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Veteran's Medical Center 111
10701 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106
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.
Sources:
Dave L. Clements
Université Paris XI
Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale
Bâtiment 121
91405 Orsay Cedex
France
Michael S. Vogeley
Princeton University
Princeton University Observatory
Princeton, NJ 08544
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.
Sources:
Lawrence A. Molnar
University of Iowa
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Iowa City, IA 52242
Robert L. Mutel
University of Iowa
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Iowa City, IA 52242
...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.
Sources:
Kenneth Brecher
Boston University
Department of Astronomy
725 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
Articles:
Tuberculosis Outbreak
An ancient killer strikes a new population
Researchers study a fierce epidemic among the Yanomami Indians of Brazil.
Sources:
Barry R. Bloom
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
1300 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx, NY 10461
Jose Roberto Borges
Rainforest Action Network
221 Pine Street, #500
San Francisco, CA 94104
Andreas G. Nerlich
Ludwig-Macximilians-Universitat
Department of Pathology, Munchen
80337 Munchen
Germany
Alexandra O. de Sousa
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
1300 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx, NY 10461
William W. Stead
Arkansas Department of Health
Tuberculosis Program
4815 West Markham Street
Little Rock, AR 72205-3867
Christopher Wills
University of California, San Diego
Department of Biology
Mail Stop Code 0116
San Diego, CA 92110
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.
Sources:
Wiley Buck
University of Minnesota
Wildlife Conservation
315 Hodson Hall
1980 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
Robert L. Crabtree
Yellowstone Ecosystem Studies
P.O. Box 6640
Bozeman, MT 59771
Eric M. Gese
Utah State University
National Wildlife Research Center
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Logan, UT 84322-5295
