Radio and infrared images suggest that three nearby stars have recently spawned planets and might still be in the throes of forming a solar system.

Sources:  

Pawel Artymowicz
Stockholm Observatory
S-133 36 Saltsjobaden
Sweden

Michael W. Werner
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mailstop 126-304
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109

 

Observations of rapid oscillations in the intensity of X rays emitted by a neutron star provide a novel test of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Sources: 

Frederick K. Lamb
University of Illinois
Department of Physics
1110 W. Green Street
Urbana, IL 61801-3080

William Zhang
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Mail Code 662
Greenbelt, MD 20771

 

A study of old museum eggs has revealed that shells started thinning in Britain at the time of the Industrial Revolution almost 50 years before the introduction of DDT.

Sources: 

D. Michael Fry
University of California, Davis
Center for Avian Biology
Davis, CA 95616

Rhys E. Green
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
17 Regent Terrace
Edinburgh EH7 5BN
United Kingdom

 

Contrary to conservation biology dogma, the rare Fender’s blue butterfly may do better with patches of habitat than with a corridor linking potential sites.

Sources:  

Paul Beier
Northern Arizona University
School of Forestry
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5018

Susan Harrison
University of California, Davis
Department of Environmental Science and Policy
Davis, CA 95616

Cheryl B. Schultz
University of Washington
Department of Zoology
Box 351800
Seattle, WA 98195-1800

 

Researchers have deciphered the method by which an ulcer-causing bacterium becomes resistant to the antibiotic used in Flagyl, MetroGel, and Protostat.

Sources:  

Douglas E. Berg
Washington University Medical School
Departments of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics
4566 Scott Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63110

Martin J. Blaser
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

Avery C. Goodwin
Dalhousie University
Departments of Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada

Miklós Müller
Rockefeller University
New York City, NY

 

The three-dimensional structure of a receptor protein reveals how it allows cold viruses to enter cells.

Sources:  

Jordi Bella
Purdue University
Department of Biological Sciences
West Lafayette, IN 47907

 

High concentrations of a major stress hormone in the elderly may contribute to atrophy of a brain structure crucial to memory and spatial navigation.

Sources:  

Philip W. Landfield
University of Kentucky
College of Medicine
Department of Pharmacology
Mailstop 307
Lexington, KY 40536-0084

Sonia J. Lupien
McGill University
Department of Psychiatry
Aging Research Program
Douglas Hospital Research Center
6875 Boulevard Lasalle
Verdun, Quebec H4H 1R3
Canada

Nada M. Porter
University of Kentucky
College of Medicine
Department of Pharmacology
Mailstop 307
Lexington, KY 40536-0084

 

Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, reportedly is pregnant.

Research Notes

Biology

A protein involved in the growth of embryonic brain cells may also play a role in blood vessel growth.

Sources:  

Pernille Rørth
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Meyerhofstrasse 1
69117 Heidelberg
Germany
Web site: http://www.ciwemb.edu/links/research_blurbs/rorthresearch.html.

 

Scientists have found a way to turn on random genes in fruit flies.

Sources: 

Michael Klagsburn
Harvard Medical School
Children’s Hospital
Department of Pathology
Boston, MA 02115

 

The population of manatees in remote regions of Florida appears to be increasing, but populations on Florida’s populous southern Atlantic coast may be decreasing.

Sources: 

Catherine A. Langtimm
Holy Cross College
Department of Biology
Worcester, MA 01610

Thomas J. O’Shea
U.S. Geological Survey
Midcontinent Ecological Science Center
4512 McMurry Avenue
Fort Collins, CO 80525

The World Conservation Union has issued the first worldwide list of threatened plants.

Sources:  

Bruce Stein
Nature Conservancy
1815 North Lynn Street
Arlington, VA 22209

Biomedicine

When given daily between the ages of 8 and 14, somatropin increases growth but not psychological outlook, in short girls.

Sources: 

Jean Mulligan
Southampton University Hospitals
University Child Health
Southampton SO16 6YD
United Kingdom

A genetic variation that limits production of key detoxifying enzymes increases women’s risk of developing breast cancer.

Sources:  

Paul T. Strickland
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health
Department of Epidemiology
Baltimore, MD 21205

Physics

Fermilab physicists have discovered a long-sought meson consisting of a charm quark and an antibottom quark.

Sources: 

S.H. Kim
University of Tsukuba
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 315
Japan

 

The most accurate set of measurements to date established the half-life of titanium-44 as 59.2 years.

Superfluidity can occur in a cluster consisting of as few as 60 helium-4 atoms.

Sources: 

 Fresh samples from the Red Planet

Relying on a trio of small missions, NASA expects by 2008 to have gathered, stored, and carried to Earth bits of rock and soil from Mars.

Sources:  

Doug Blanchard
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Houston, TX 77058

Michael Carr
U.S. Geological Survey
345 Middlefield Road
Mailstop 975
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Roger Kern
California Institute of Technology
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109

Margaret S. Race
SETI Institute
2043 Landings Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043 

John D. Rummel
Marine Biological Laboratory
7 MBL Street
Woods Hole, MA 02543

J. William Schopf
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Earth and Space Sciences
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1562

 

Young kids grasp new words with intriguing dexterity

The apparent ease with which 2-year-olds learn new words may reflect their budding social insights about adults' intentions.

Sources: