January 4, 1997
Images of the surface of ice may help explain its slipperiness as well as its role in atmospheric ozone depletion.
Sources:
Steve George
Department of Chemistry
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309
E-mail: georges@spot.colorado.edu
Mario J. Molina
DEAPS, 54-1320
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139
E-mail: mmolina@mit.edu
Michel Van Hove
M.S. 66
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Berkeley, CA 94720
E-mail: vanhove@lbl.gov
Website: http://www.lbl.gov
Spacecraft spies hills and valleys of sunA fixed landscape of gassy hills and valleys rotates with the surface of the sun.
Sources:
Jeffrey R. Kuhn
Michigan State University
309 Physics/Astronomy Building
East Lansing, MI 48824
David Hathaway
Solar Physics Branch
Mail Code ES82
Space Sciences Laboratory
NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, AL 35812
John Leibacher
National Solar Observatory
PO Box 26732
Tucson, AZ 85726
Phil Scherrer
MDI Experiment PI
HEPL-4085
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4085
Juri Toomre
JILA
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0440
Images and gravitational and magnetic field maps from the Galileo spacecraft are describing four Jovian large moons from the inside out.
Sources:
Gerald Schubert
Department of Earth and Space Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095
The oxygen-poor conditions inside a tumor cause further mutations in cancer cells, perhaps making the tumor more deadly.
Sources:
Peter M. Glazer
Department of Therapeutic Radiology
Yale University School of Medicine
Box 208040
New Haven, CT 06520
Earthquakes: the deadly side of geometryA seismologist uses foam rubber models and computers to explain why some earthquakes cause much more damage than others.
Sources:
James Brune
Seismological Laboratory
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, NV 89557
Thomas Heaton
Division of Geological and Planetary Science
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125
A group of volunteers who took daily supplements of selenium for more than 4 years did not reduce their rates of skin cancer as predicted, but they did develop fewer lung, colon, rectum, and prostate cancers than a group that took a placebo.
Sources:
Larry C. Clark
Arizona Cancer Center
2504 Elm Street
Tucson, AZ 851716-3417
Graham Colditz
Channing Laboratory
181 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02116
An ultracomputer assembled by Intel for the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship program achieved a record calculation rate of 1 trillion operations per second.
Sources:
Jack Dongarra
Computer Science Department
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1301
Alex Larzelere
Office of Strategic Computing and Modeling
Defense Programs
Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585
Gil Weigand
Strategic Computing and Simulation
Defense Programs
Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585
A deleted DNA segment responsible for a condition known as velo-cardio-facial syndrome may hold a gene whose absence predisposes people to manic depression.
Sources:
Elliot S. Gershon
Clinical Neurogenetics Branch
National Institute of Mental Health
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
Demitri F. Papolos
Department of Psychiatry
Program of Behavioral Genetics
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
Montefiore Medical Center
1300 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx, NY 10461
Robert J. Shprintzen
Center for Craniofacial Disorders
Montefiore Medical Center
1300 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx, NY 10461
A new technique rids plants of foreign genes, added by genetic engineering, after they have served their purpose.
Sources: Thomas K. Hodges
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
E-mail: hodges@btny.purdue.edu
David W. Ow
Plant Gene Expression Center
USDA/ARS
800 Buchanan Street
Albany, CA 94710
E-mail: ow@mendel.berkeley.edu
Researchers are engineering plants to resist multiple viruses.
Sources: Roger N. Beachy
Division of Plant Biology
The Scripps Research Institute
BCC206
10550 North Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037
E-mail: beachy@scripps.edu
Isao Ishida
Central Laboratory for Key Technology
Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd.
1-13-5 Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku
Yokohama, 236
Japan
E-mail: i-ishida@kirin.co.jp
Radar signals bounced off the lunar surface indicate that the moon contains a substantial supply of water ice in a heavily shadowed basin.
Sources:
Paul Spudis
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Houston, TX 77058
Pulsars travel so far and so fast because they were blasted out of their original location by neutrinos created at the birth of the star.
Sources:
John Hayes
NSCA
Beckman Institute
Urbana, IL 61801
Shrinivas Kulkarni
California Institute of Technology
Department of Astronomy
105-24
Pasadena, CA 91125
Gino Segre
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6396
Men who experience moderate to severe depression face an increased risk of developing lung cancer, either because of the mood disorder's direct biological effects or its tendency to promote heavy cigarette smoking.
Sources:
Gary D. Friedman
Division of Research
Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program
Northern California Region
3505 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94611
Paul Knekt
National Public Health Institute
Mannerheimintie 166
SF-00300 Helsinki
Finland
Major depression, as well as a milder mood disorder, substantially boosts the likelihood of suffering a heart attack.
Sources:
William W. Eaton
Department of Mental Hygiene
Johns Hopkins University
615 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
When an undersea volcanic ridge erupted off the Pacific Northwest coast, oceanographers got a glimpse of the process of seafloor spreading.
Sources:
Edward T. Baker
NOAA PMEL
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115-0070
William W. Chadwick Jr.
CIMRS
Oregon State University
Newport, OR 97365-5258
A sunken submarine in the Atlantic may be the ideal place to test whether seafloor sediments make a suitable resting place for nuclear waste.
Sources:
Charles D. Hollister
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1522
Bruce F. Molnia
917 National Center
U.S. Geological Survey
Reston, VA 20192
Animals' FanciesWhy members of some species prefer their own sex
Members of many animal species engage in homosexual activities. Researchers have argued that such relations, either directly or indirectly, ensure that the participants' genes get passed along. But research into the behavior of rams and macaques suggest otherwise. Studies are also demonstrating biological and environmental differences that may account for animals' sexual preferences.
Sources:
Elizabeth Adkins-Regan
218 Uris Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-7601
E-mail: er12@cornell.edu
Richard C. Connor
University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
Biology Department
285 Old Westport Road
North Dartmouth, MA 02747
Michael R. Conover
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-5210
E-mail: conover@cc.usu.edu
Ian Horrell
Department of Psychology
University of Hull
Hull, England HU67RX
E-mail: r.i.horrell@psy.hull.ac.uk
Anne Perkins
Department of Psychology
Carroll College
Helena, MT 59625
E-mail: aperkins@carroll.edu
Martha Robbins
Department of Zoology
Birge Hall
430 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Paul L. Vasey
Départment d' Anthropologie
Université de Montréal
C. P. 6128
Succursale Centreville, Montréal
Québec H3C-3J7
Canada
E-mail: vaseyp@ere.umontreal.ca
African ancestors may have entered Europe surprisingly early
Archaeological discoveries in Spain and elsewhere have raised the possibility that human ancestors entered Europe at least 1 million years ago, and perhaps much earlier.
Sources:
Eudald Carbonell
Area de Prehistoria (Laboratori d'Arqueologia)
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Imperial Tarraco, 1
43005 Tarragona
Spain
Robin Dennell
Department of Archaeology and Prehistory
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
England
Josep Gibert
Institut Paleontologic Dr. M. Crusafont
Carrer de L'Escola
Industriel 23
082021 Sabadell
Cataluyna
Spain
F. Clark Howell
Department of Anthropology
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
Jerold M. Lowenstein
Department of Nuclear Medicine
University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
San Francisco, CA 94143
Derek Roe
Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre
Oxford University
60 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 6PN
England
Wil Roebroeks
Faculty of Pre- and Protohistory
Leiden University
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
Netherlands
Phillip V. Tobias
Department of Anatomy
Medical School
University of the Witwatersrand
York Road, Parktown
Johannesburg 2193
South Africa
Alain Turq
Musee National de Prehistoire
B.P. No. 7
24 620 Les Eyzies de Tayac
France
Adrienne L. Zihlman
Department of Anthropology
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Table of Contents - 1/4/97
