| Sources | References |
News of the Week:
The
Cosmos' Fate: World Without End
Two new studies provide strong hints that the universe may expand forever.
Sources:
Peter M. Garnavich
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Room P-330
Mail Stop Code 19
Cambridge, MA 02138
Robert P. Kirshner
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Room P-322
Mail Stop Code 19
Cambridge, MA 02138
Saul Perlmutter
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Physics Department
1 Cyclotron Road
Berkeley, CA 94720
Zeroing in on an infinite number of primes
Mathematicians have proved there are infinitely many primes among whole numbers of the form a^2 + b^4.
Sources:
John Friedlander
Department of Mathematics
Scarborough College
University of Toronto
Scarborough, ON M1C 1A4
Canada
Andrew J. Granville
Department of Mathematics
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-7403
Henryk Iwaniec
Department of Mathematics
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
Peter C. Sarnak
Department of Mathematics
Fine Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1000
A chemical foam converts asbestos fireproofing materials to nontoxic but still protective minerals.
Sources:
David F. Myers
W.R. Grace & Company
62 Whittemore Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
Leon Petrakis
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Chemistry Department
Building 555
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
Xenon injects images with brightness
Injected into the body, the inert gas xenon can enhance magnetic resonance images.
Sources:
Thomas F. Budinger
University of California, San Francisco
Department of Radiology
San Francisco, CA 94143
Gil Navon
Tel Aviv University
P.O. Box 39040
Tel Aviv 69978
Israel
Alexander Pines
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Chemistry
D-64 Hildebrand Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1460
E-mail: pines@cchem.berkeley.edu
Scott D. Swanson
University of Michigan
Department of Radiology
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0583
Mongolian dinosaurs give up sandy secrets
Geologists propose that recently uncovered dinosaurs lived in rolling meadows, rather than deserts, more than 70 million years ago.
Sources:
David E. Fastovsky
University of Rhode Island
Department of Geology
Kingston, RI 02881
David B. Loope
University of Nebraska
Department of Geosciences
Lincoln, NE 68588-0340
Mark A. Norell
American Museum of Natural History
Department of Vertebrate Paleontology
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024-5192
DNA tests find phony seal penises
Material sold as seal penises for use as aphrodisiacs includes parts of species that aren't even close to being seals.
Sources:
Edgard O. Espinoza
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1490 East Main Street
Ashland, OR 97520David M. Lavigne
International Marine Mammal Association
1474 Gordon Street
Guelph, Ontario N1L 1C8
CanadaStephen R. Palumbi
Harvard University
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Biolabs
16 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
A surprising encounter of the NEAR kind
Pictures and data obtained during last summer's flyby of asteroid 253 Mathilde indicate that the carbon-rich, heavily cratered body has an extremely low density.
Sources:
Robert W. Farquhar
Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory
Johns Hopkins Road
Mail Stop Code 2-155
Laurel, MD 20723
Joseph F. Veverka
Cornell University
312 Space Sciences Building
Ithaca, NY 14853
Donald K. Yeomans
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mail Stop Code 301-150
Pasadena, CA 91109
Gene pushes cells into forced retirement
A newly identified gene induces cancer cells to enter senescence, a nondividing state that might play a role in aging.
Sources:
Michael J. Bertram
Baylor College of Medicine
Cell Biology Joint Faculty
BCM-Ben Taub Research Center
BCMT T228
Houston, TX 77030
Research Notes:
Astronomy
Europa's salty surface
Evidence of magnesium sulfate on the surface of Europa lends further support to the notion that this Jovian moon recently had and might still harbor an underground ocean.
Sources:
Thomas B. McCord
University of Hawaii
Hawaii Institute of Geology and Geophysics
2525 Correa Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
Fossils from Mars: Point, counterpoint
Researchers continue to debate whether a rock from Mars contains tiny fossils of primitive bacteria.
Sources:
John P. Bradley
MVA
5500/200 Oakbrook Parkway
Norcross, GA 30093
Kathie Thomas-Keprta
Lockheed Martin
2400 NASA Road 1, C-23
Houston, TX 77058
Behavior
Evolution of attention
Symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder may sometimes represent adaptive responses to certain environments.
Sources:
Peter S. Jensen
National Institute of Mental Health
Child and Adolescent Disorders Research Branch
Parklawn Building, Room 18C-17
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
James F. Leckman
Yale University School of Medicine
Sterling Hall of Medicine
Child Study Center
Room I-269
P.O. Box 207900
New Haven, CT 06520-7900
Magentic mood brightener
A pilot study suggests that magnetic stimulation of the brain improves the mood of people suffering from major depression.
Sources:
Mark S. George
Medical University of South Carolina
Radiology Department
171 Ashley Avenue
Charleston, SC 29425
Biology
Frogs that talk through their ears
The North American bullfrog uses its ears as amplifiers to broadcast its commanding croak.
Sources:
Alejandro P. Purgue
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Physiological Science
405 Hillgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Frog real estate: More than location
Proposed fixes for fragmented habitat may help one frog species but not another in the same forest.
Sources:
Karen R. Lips
St. Lawrence University
Department of Biology
Bewkes Science Hall 124
Canton, NY 13617
Peter B. Pearman
Evergreen State College
Laboratory 1, Room 3012
Olympia, WA 98505
Biomedicine
Mammograms get boost for women over 40
Women who get regular mammograms in their 40s are less likely to die of breast cancer, a Swedish study shows.
Sources:
Stephen A. Feig
Jefferson Medical College
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
1100 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107-5563
Role of cancer mutation scrutinized
A genetic mutation thought to predispose people to colorectal cancer didn't have that effect when scientists focused on families with histories of breast and ovarian cancer.
Sources:
Andrew K. Godwin
Fox Chase Cancer Center
7701 Burholme Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19111
Articles:
From the moon to Mars and beyond
Ranging from a close-up tour of the moon to an orbiting telescope searching for distant galaxies, the majority of missions scheduled for 1998 are diminutive.
Children of the C4 World
Did a decline in carbon dioxide concentrations spur our evolution?
A change in the atmosphere may have altered global vegetation and mammalian species 8 million years ago.
Sources:
Thure E. Cerling
University of Utah
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
John D. Kingston
Yale University
Department of Anthropology
New Haven, CT 06520
Michele E. Morgan
Harvard University
Department of Anthropology
Cambridge, MA 02138
