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Metals in Orbit
October 24, 1998 | Volume 154 | Number 17
Cover: The space shuttle Columbia has carried
several experiments designed to show how materials behave in microgravity. What scientists
learn might improve metal processing on Earth. |
 Click on this icon listed by each article to get full references and
sources. |
News of the Week:
Bright
Lights Dim Winter Depression
New research supports
light therapy as an effective treatment for severe mental depression that recurs during
winter months.
Bigger U.S. population uses less water
Despite a growing
population, the United States is now saving 38 billion gallons of water a day compared to
the all-time-high consumption 18 years ago.
Chlamydia bacterium yields surprise genome
Scientists have
deciphered all the genes of the bacterium that causes chlamydia, the most common sexually
transmitted bacterial disease in the United States; solved some mysteries about the
pathogen; and opened new avenues for research.
Making use of mismatched donor marrow
A new bone-marrow
transplant method offers greater success in leukemia patients who must receive mismatched
donor marrow.
Cell-phone muffler squelches street noise
Newly developed
noise-canceling technology may soon help cell-phone users hear the voice at the other end
despite noisy cars, airports, and streets.
Clues hint how particulates harm lungs
By eavesdropping on the
chemical chatter within lung cells exposed to particulate pollution, researchers have
identified intracellular messages that may trigger disease.
Fish nature: Sometimes shy, sometimes bold
Tests of pumpkinseed
sunfish show that shyness and boldness are personality traits not necessarily expressed in
all situations.
DNA computing tricks add up to progress
By biochemically
manipulating DNA strands attached to a gold surface, researchers have performed two more
DNA computing operations similar to those executed by a conventional computer.
Giant iceberg breaks off
An iceberg bigger than
Delaware has split off from the Antarctic ice shelf, but global warming is probably not to
blame.
Biochemistry
New penicillin booby-traps bacteria
A modified form of
penicillin can potentially kill bacteria resistant to antibiotics, using the very enzyme
that can disable the drug.
A new angle on a blood-cell hormone
The three-dimensional
arrangement of two cell-surface molecules with erythroprotein (EPO), which stimulates
production of red blood cells, explains why EPO mimics don’t work as well as the real
thing.
Biology
How smoke makes a wildflower grow
At least 25 kinds of
plants in the California chaparral need wildfire smoke to trigger sprouting, though other
factors matter too.
Look out, here comes that scrawny guy
A tropical butterfly
species provides a rare example of small males having the advantage over bigger guys in
territorial disputes.
Can iguanas ride rafts for 200 miles?
Iguanas that washed
ashore on debris from a storm probably traveled more than 200 miles between Caribbean
islands, the best evidence yet that animal species could have spread by rafting.
Earth Science
Spring-loaded corridor connects oceans
A surprising string of
seafloor hot springs in the Indian Ocean may be the stepping stones for animals moving
from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.
Revived cable sparks seafloor research
Scientists revived a
lifeless submarine telephone cable that now connects them to experiments at the bottom of
the Pacific Ocean.
Physics
Brighter bulbs light up cell innards
Cell interiors light up
brighter and longer when tagged with fluorescent markers made from quantum
dots—clusters of semiconductor atoms with special light-emitting properties.
Crystal bends light hard, saves space
A miniature device that
can bend light sharply but keeps it bright, represents a potential path to faster
telecommunications switching.
Space-Age Metals
Freed from gravity, metals reveal their mysteries
Taking advantage of
low-gravity experiments aboard NASA's space shuttle, researchers are starting to sort out
confounding factors that determine how metals mix and solidify.
Atom Tinkerer’s Paradise
Innovations to atom-imaging microscopes create labs on tips
The scanning probe
microscopes that lifted the veil on the atomic and molecular world in the 1980s have
become "laboratories on a tip," offering novel platforms for manipulating
matter.
Letters: A
Selection from Letters to the Editor
