The discovery of a 1-million-year-old skull belonging to the same evolutionary lineage as modern humans ranks as a highly significant addition to the hominid fossil record.

 Sources:

Ernesto Abbate
Università di Firenze
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
50121 Firenze
Italy

Ian Tattersall
American Museum of Natural History
Department of Anthropology
New York, NY 10024

Tim D. White
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Anthropology
Berkeley, CA 94720

 Scientists attack the idea that thousands of large snowballs pelt Earth every day.

 Sources:

Thomas M. Donahue
University of Michigan
Department of Atmosphere, Ocean and Space
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Louis A. Frank
University of Iowa
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Iowa City, IA 52242

Alan W. Harris
California Institute of Technology
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA 91109

Stephen H. Knowles
Naval Research Laboratory
E.O. Hulburt Center for Space Research
Washington, DC 20375-5320

Larry J. Paxton
Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory
Laurel, MD 20723

 A dim white dot on a Hubble Space Telescope image may be the runaway planetary offspring of a pair of youthful stars.

 Sources:

Alan P. Boss
Carnegie Institute of Washington
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
5241 Broad Branch Road, N.W.
Washington, DC 20015-1305

Luis F. Rodriguez
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Instituto de Astronomia
Apdo Postal 70-264
DF04510 Mexico City
Mexico

Susan Tereby
Extrasolar Research Corporation
720 Magnolia Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91106

 A scanning tunneling microscope detects steps and crystal patterns in silicon hidden beneath a lead film.

 Sources:

Igor B. Altfeder
Rowland Institute for Science
100 Edwin H. Land Boulevard
Cambridge, MA 02142

Dongmin Chen
Rowland Institute for Science
100 Edwin H. Land Boulevard
Cambridge, MA 02142

Konstantin A. Matveev
Duke University
Department of Physics
Box 90305
Durham, NC 27708-0305

Ellen D. Williams
University of Maryland
Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
College Park, MD 20742-4111

 Sources:

David O. Carpenter
State University of New York at Albany
School of Public Health
1 University Place
Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456

Elizabeth A. Guillette
32 S.W. 43rd Terrace
Gainesville, FL 32607
E-mail: afn33385@afn.org

Philip J. Landrigan
Mount Sinai Medical Center
Department of Community and Preventive Medicine
New York, NY 10029

 A fish that uses a form of chlorophyll to see provides the first documented case of that compound's physiological role in an animal.

 Sources:

Julian C. Partridge
University of Bristol
School of Biological Sciences
Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1UG
United Kingdom

Edith A. Widder
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
5600 US Highway 1 North
Ft. Pierce, FL 34946

 Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are prevalent in 35 countries studied by the World Health Organization.

 Sources:

Leonid Heifets
National Jewish Medical and Research Center
1400 Jackson Street
Denver, CO 80206

Ariel Pablos-Méndez
Columbia University
Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons
Division of General Medicine
622 W. 168th Street, PH-9E-105
New York, NY 10032

 Sources:

Osmond J. D’Cruz
Wayne Hughes Institute
Drug Discovery Program
Departments of Reproductive Biology and Chemistry
2665 Long Lake Road, Suite 330
St. Paul, MN 55113
E-mail: odcruz@ih.org

Henry Gabelnick
Contraceptive Research and Development Program (CONRAD)
1611 North Kent Street, Suite 806
Arlington, VA 22209

Research Notes

 Gases of electrically charged particles can sterilize surfaces and foods by destroying bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

 Sources:

Kimberly Kelly-Wintenberg
University of Tennessee
Department of Microbiology
M409 Walters Life Sciences Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-0845

 Fungi belonging to the genus Aspergillus are responsible for rust-colored splotches on the pages of books from the 19th century and earlier.

 Sources:

Raymond F. Sullivan
Rutgers University
Cook College
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
New Brunswick, NJ 08903

 Inoculating cattle with bacteria that help sheep detoxify alkaloid compounds may allow cows to eat feed containing tansy ragwort and other poisonous plants.

Sources:

Wade H. Johnston
Oregon State University
College of Veterinary medicine
105 Magruder Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331

Mark Rasmussen
National Animal Disease Center
2300 Dayton Road
P.O. Box 70
Ames, IA 50010

 A gene that repairs DNA damage helps bacteria survive on sunlit plant leaves.

 Sources:

George W. Sundin
Texas A&M University
Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology
College Station, TX 77843-2132

 Seeding livestock waste lagoons with bacteria that degrade odorants makes the lagoons less smelly.

 Sources:

Young S. Do
Iowa State University
Department of Microbiology
207 Science I Building
Ames, IA 50011

 The scientific flap over sunscreens and skin cancer

Epidemiological studies
Epidemiologists are concerned because the rise in sunscreen use has occurred in tandem with an increase in skin cancer.

Chemical studies
Scientists are taking a fresh look at how sunscreens block ultraviolet light.  

Epidemiological studies
Sources:

Chemical studies  
Sources:

John M. Allen
Indiana State University
Department of Chemistry
51 Science Building
Terre Haute, IN 47809

Frank Gasparro
Thomas Jefferson University
233 South 10th Street, Room 428
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Kerry M. Hanson
University of California, San Diego
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 93093-0341

John Knowland
University of Oxford
Department of Biochemistry
South Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3QU
England

John D. Simon
Duke University
Department of Chemistry
Durham, NC 27708

 A shockingly unconventional meat tenderizer

 Sources:

Bradley W. Berry
USDA/Agricultural Research Service
Meat Science Research Laboratory
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
Building 201
Beltsville, MD 20705-2350

Brown & Root, Inc.
4100 Clinton Dr.
Houston, TX 77001

Janet Eastridge
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Building 201, BARC-East
Beltsville, MD 20705-2350

Stanford Klapper
Hydrodyne, Inc.
416 Ponce de Leon Avenue
Suite 1602
Hato Rey, Puerto Rico 00918

John B. Long
Sarasota, FL 34236
E-mail: Hydrodyne2@aol.com

Morse B. Solomon
USDA/Agricultural Research Service
Meat Science Research Laboratory
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
Building 201
Beltsville, MD 20705-2350

Hadasa Zuckerman
USDA/Agricultural Research Service
Meat Science Research Laboratory
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
Building 201
Beltsville, MD 20705-2350