Full Text Available for Selected Articles

News of the Week:

A Shot to the Heart Shows Promise

A new drug promotes blood vessel growth in humans, a possible boon to patients with heart disease.

Sources:

Thomas-Joseph Stegmann
Klinik fur Thorax
Herz und Gefab chirugie
Klinikum Fulda
Pacelliallee 4
D-36043 Fulda
Germany

 

 New findings from the Hipparcos satellite lend further support to the idea that the halo of our galaxy acquired its stars by stealing them from small, nearby galaxies.

Sources:

B. Chen
Universitat de Barcelona
Department d’Astronomia i Meteorologia
Avda. Diagonal 647
E0802, Barcelona
Spain

 

Scientists find evidence of fresh lava at a submerged Pacific volcano.

Sources:

Edward T. Baker
NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
7600 Sand Point Way, N.E.
Seattle, WA 98115-0070

Robert W. Embley
NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Hatfield Marine Science Center
2115 Oregon State University Drive
Newport, OR 97365-5258

Christopher Fox
NOAA/ Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Hatfield Marine Science Center
2115 S.E. Oregon State University Drive
Newport, OR 97365

 

 Brain images indicate that separate regions of the prefrontal cortex regulate working memory for objects and for spatial relationships.

Sources:

Susan M. Courtney
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition
Building 10, Room 4C104
10 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892

 

Mathematicians describe tendril perversion

 A mathematical model of elastic rods can be used to describe coiled vine tendrils and kinky phone cords.

Sources: 

Alain Goriely
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Département de Mathématique
CP 218/1
1050 Brussels
Belgium

Michael Tabor
University of Arizona
Program in Applied Mathematics
Tucson, AZ 85721

 

 A technique that allows polymers to arrange themselves into intricate patterns could make computer chip manufacturing faster and cheaper.

Sources:

Ullrich Steiner
Universitat Konstanz
Fakultät fùr Physik
78457 Konstanz
Germany
E-mail: ulli.steiner@uni-konstanz.de

 

 Mice missing a protein involved in insulin signaling develop type II diabetes.

Sources: 

Morris F. White
Harvard Medical School
Department of Medicine
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Joslin Diabetes Center
Boston, MA 02215

 Several stratagems enable the cowbird to win or tie the race to be the first egg to hatch.

Sources:

D. Glen McMaster
Saskatchewan Wetland Conservation Corporation
202-2050 Cornwall Street
Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 2K5
Canada

Spencer G. Sealy
University of Manitoba
Department of Zoology
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
Canada

Research Notes
AAAS

 The ways in which juries perceive DNA evidence can vary greatly depending on how that evidence is presented.

Sources:

Jonathan J. Koehler
University of Texas at Austin
Graduate School of Business and Law School
Austin, TX 78712-1175

 

A drug called texaphyrin enhances the effectiveness of radiation treatments for metastatic brain cancer.

Sources:

Thomas Dougherty
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
666 Elm Street
Buffalo, NY 14263
Web site: http://rpci.med.buffalo.edu/external.html

Jonathan L. Sessler
University of Texas at Austin
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Austin, TX 78712
Web site: http://www.cm.utexas.edu/

 

Science pokes loopholes in cloning bans

 Twenty states have considered legislation to ban human cloning, but the proposed wording may leave loopholes.

Sources:

Lori B. Andrews
Chicago-Kent College of Law
565 West Adams Street
Chicago, IL 60661

Bacteria may hide in hunks of gunk

 Traditional microbiological tests may not reveal all of the pathogens hiding in the processed sludge used as fertilizer.

Sources: 

David L. Lewis
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ecosystems Research Division
960 College Station Road
Athens, GA 30605
Web site: http://members.aol.com/LewisDaveL/

 President Clinton nominated two scientists for directorships at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation.

Sources:

Rita R. Colwell
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute
4321 Hartwick Road
College Park, MD 20740
Web site: http://www.umbi.umd.edu/

Jack Gibbons
Office of Science and Technology Policy
Washington, DC 20502
Web site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/OSTP_Home.old.html

Neal F. Lane
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230
Web site: http://www.nsf.gov/od/start.htm

Biomedicine
The good news: Protease inhibitors

 Deaths due to AIDS have dropped sharply in the 3 years since new drugs called protease inhibitors came on the market.

Sources:

Mary Ann Chiasson
New York City Department of Health
125 Worth Street
New York, NY 10013

Kevin M. De Cock
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road, N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30333

 

 Some people taking protease inhibitors to fight AIDS are experiencing a strange buildup of fat on the belly and on the back of the neck.

Sources:

Richard L. Hengel
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Infectious Diseases
1600 Clifton Road, N.E.
Mail Stop Code A25
Atlanta, GA 30333

John W. Mellors
University of Pittsburgh
Graduate School of Public Health
Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

 

 An intravaginal gel that kills HIV has proved safe in a small-scale test in women.

Sources:

Albert T. Profy
Procept
Protein Biochemistry and Preclinical Development
840 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139

 

Physics
Flooding light through tiny holes

A regular array of microscopic holes in a thin metal layer lets through a surprisingly large amount of light.

Sources: 

T.W. Ebbesen
ISIS
Louis Pasteur University
4 rue B. Pascal
67000 Strasbourg
France

Roy Sambles
Department of Physics
Stocker Road
University of Exeter
Exeter EX4 4QL
United Kingdom

 

The development of an improved quantum tunneling transistor potentially opens up the way for mass production of such devices.

Sources: 

J.A. Simmons
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, NM 87185-1415

Articles:

Cosmologists in Flatland
Searching for the missing energy

 Many cosmologists aren’t about to give up the idea that the universe has a flat geometry.

Sources:

Joshua Frieman
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Theoretical Astrophysics Department
P.O. Box 500
Mail Stop Code 209
Batavia, IL 60510

Ue-Li Pen
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

David Spergel
Princeton University
Princeton University Observatory
Princeton, NJ 08544

Paul J. Steinhardt
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Valuable Vices
Researchers uncover the healthful side of hedonism

New research suggests that alcohol, sex, and high-fat food may provide health benefits.

Sources:

Richard Doll
University of Oxford
Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit
Radcliffe Infirmary
Oxford OX2 6HE
England

Stephen Frankel
Department of Social Medicine
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 2PR
England

Matthew W. Gillman
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention
126 Brookline Avenue, Suite 200
Boston, MA 02215

Thomas O. Obisesan
Howard University Hospital
Section of Geriatrics
Department of Internal Medicine
Division of Ophthalmology
Washington, DC 20059

John D. Potter
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
1100 Fairview Avenue North
P.O. Box 19024
Seattle, WA 98104

Thomas R. Price
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Department of Neurology
Baltimore, MD 21201

Michael J. Thun
American Cancer Society
Epidemiology and Surveillance Research
1599 Clifton Road, N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30329-4251

References

Table of Contents - 2/28/98

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