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News of the Week:
Deformed Nuclei Spit Out Protons
A rare type of radioactive decay reveals that certain atomic nuclei are shaped more like flattened globes than true spheres.
Sources:
Richard F. Casten
Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory
Yale University
P.O. Box 208124
272 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06520-8124Cary N. Davids
Physics Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL 60439Witold Nazarewicz
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Building 6003, Mail Stop 6373
P.O. Box 2008
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6372
Exploring a genetic link to smoking
Differences in the genes that encode dopamine receptors may account for the range of people's attraction to cigarette smoking.
Sources:
Ernest P. Noble
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Brain Research Institute
760 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1759
Taters for tots provide an edible vaccine
A genetically engineered potato raises expectations that people may someday get vaccinated by eating appropriate foods.
Sources:
Charles J. Arntzen
Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research
Tower Road
Ithaca, NY 14853-1801Carol Tacket
University of Maryland
Center for Vaccine Development
685 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Craft eyes new evidence of a slushy Europa
The sharpest images ever taken of Europa, an icy satellite of Jupiter, offer fresh evidence that it possesses either a vast ocean or a partially frozen sea.
Sources:
William B. McKinnon
Washington University
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130Robert T. Pappalardo
Brown University
Geological Sciences Department
Box 1846
Providence, RI 02912
Bone marrow cells can
build new muscle
The soft tissue inside bone may harbor a population of cells capable of forming new muscle.
Sources:
Eric P. Hoffman
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Fulvio Mavilio
H. San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy
20132 Milan
Italy
Dyslexia tied to disrupted brain network
A new brain-imaging study indicates that a widespread network of neural regions malfunctions in people who have difficulty in applying sounds to the letters that make up written words.
Sources:
Guinevere Eden
Georgetown University Medical Center
Institute for Cognitive and Computational Sciences
Research Building EP04
3970 Reservoir Road, N.W.
Washington, DC 20007Sally E. Shaywitz
Yale University School of Medicine
Department of Pediatrics
New Haven, CT 06520
Fossil soil has the dirt on early microbes
Fossil deposits from South Africa suggest that life had colonized the land surface at least 2 billion years ago.
Sources:
Nicolas J. Beukes
Rand Afrikaans University
Department of Geology
P.O. Box 524
Auckland Park 2006
South AfricaJens Gutzmer
Rand Afrikaans University
Department of Geology
P.O. Box 524
Auckland Park 2006
South AfricaHeinrich D. Holland
Harvard University
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
20 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138-2902Gregory J. Retallack
University of Oregon
Department of Geography
107 Condon Hall
Eugene, OR 97403
Heterosexual women have noisy ears
Differences in the auditory systems of heterosexual and homosexual women may reflect prenatal brain changes that may also presage sexual orientation.
Sources:
William Byne
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry
P.O. Box 1230
New York, NY 10029Dennis McFadden
University of Texas
Department of Psychiatry
Institute for Neuroscience
Austin, TX 78712Bruce Parsons
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Unit Number 64
722 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032
Research Notes
Astronomy
A Voyager goes the distance
On Feb. 17, the Voyager 1 spacecraft became the most distant explorer in the solar system.
Sources:
Edward C. Stone
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mail Stop Code 180-904
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
Solar eclipses—on Jupiter
In a rare event recorded last November, three of Jupiter’s moons cast their shadows within the same small region on the giant planet.
Sources:
Erich Karkoschka
University of Arizona
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
Tucson, AZ 85721
Behavior
Rethinking mental disorder rates
Rising rates for mental disorders may reflect changes in diagnostic conventions rather than a widespread need for increased treatment.
Sources:
Ronald C. Kessler
Harvard University Medical School
Department of Health Care Policy
Boston, MA 02215
Family shroud for the mentally ill
Many families try to conceal the condition of a mentally ill member from friends and neighbors.
Sources:
Jo C. Phelan
Columbia University
School of Public Health
Division of Sociomedical Sciences
600 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032
Biology
Proteins that produce hunger
Two newly discovered brain proteins stimulate feeding behavior in mice.
Sources:
Masashi Yanagisawa
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Department of Molecular Genetics
Dallas, TX 75235-9050
A gene that causes hair loss
Scientists have discovered the first gene associated with human hair loss.
Sources:
Angela M. Christiano
Columbia University
Department of Dermatology
Department of Genetics and Development
630 West 168th Street
VC-15-526
New York, NY 10032
Environment
Radon–lung cancer risk high for smokers
Cigarette smoking greatly magnifies the lung cancer risk associated with exposure to radon.
Sources:
Jonathan M. Samet
Johns Hopkins University
School of Hygiene and Public Health
Department of Epidemiology
Baltimore, MD 21218
Fine-tuning federal water policies
On Feb. 19, President Clinton unveiled his Clean Water Action Plan, a strategy for protecting the nation's waters and cleaning up polluted aquatic areas.
Sources:
Robin Woods
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Wastewater Management (4204)
401 M Street, S.W.
Mail Code 1703
Washington, DC 20460
Articles:
When Birds Divorce
Who splits, who benefits, and who gets the nest
Ornithologists, who belong to a species that divorces at about the same rate as the masked booby, are now studying what snaps the pair bonds among birds.
Sources:
Jeffrey M. Black
Cambridge University
Department of Zoology
Downing Street
Cambridge CB2 3EJ
EnglandAndre A. Dhondt
Cornell University
Laboratory of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850Robert W. Furness
University of Glasglow
Applied Ornithology United, IBLS
Glasgow G12 8QQ
United KingdomJames A. Mills
5 Skyline Drive
Corning, NY 14830Lew W. Oring
University of Nevada
Department of Environmental and Resource Sciences
1000 Valley Road, 186
Reno, NV 89512William J. Sydeman
Point Reyes Bird Observatory
4990 Shoreline Highway
Stinson Beach, CA 94970
Not-So-Deadly Force
Development of less-than-lethal weapons has proliferated, promising alternative means of bridging the gap between verbal warnings and the use of deadly force.
Sources:
Sean Gibson
Headquarters
Marine Corps/PAO
Quantico Marine Corps Base, VA 22134Sid Heal
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
Special Projects Group
1275 North Eastern Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90063Dennis B. Herbert
Pennsylvania State University
Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies
P.O. Box 30
State College, PA 16804Ken Hubbs
San Diego Police Department
1401 Broadway
Mail Stop Code 777
San Diego, CA 92101Richard J. Nelson
LE Systems
60 Sequin Drive
Glastonbury, CT 06033Edward J. Vasel
Jaycor
9775 Towne Centre Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
copyright 1998 Science Service
