July 7th, 2001
issue

  • Landfills Make Mercury More Toxic
    Landfill disposal of mercury-containing products can chemically transform the pollutant not only to make it more potent but also to foster its release into air. (p. 4)
  • Have a heart: Turn on just a single gene
    One gene appears to act as the master switch in embryonic heart formation. (p. 4)
  • Is Nessie merely a bad case of the shakes?
    An Italian scientist makes the controversial suggestion that the original source of the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, as well as blame for many of the modern encounters with the supposed beast, may be seismic activity beneath the lake. (p. 5)
  • Andromeda feasts on its satellite galaxies
    A new study reveals that the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, is a cannibal, devouring its tiny galactic neighbors. (p. 5)
  • Nicotine spurs vessel growth, maybe cancer
    Test-tube and mouse experiments show that nicotine induces angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. (p. 6)
  • Tree pollen exploits surrogate mothers
    An Algerian cypress releases pollen that can develop without fertilization, using another tree species' female organs instead of a mate's. (p. 6)
  • Physicist steps up to be science adviser
    President Bush has announced that he intends to nominate John Marburger, the head of Brookhaven National Laboratory, as his science advisor. (p. 6)
  • Stone Age folk in Asia adapted to extremes
    Preliminary evidence indicates that people occupied the harsh, high-altitude environment of Asia's Tibetan Plateau in the late Stone Age, between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago. (p. 7)
  • Wee dots yield rainbow of molecule markers
    Chemists report a scheme for creating a versatile color-based tagging system out of tiny atomic clusters, called quantum dots, that may enable scientists to track biomolecules with more finesse than ever. (p. 7)
  • Killer yeast win epic battle of toxins
    Researchers have discovered the molecular mechanism that keeps a yeast cell programed by a virus to spew a toxin that kills neighboring yeast cells from killing itself. (p. 8)
  • Textbooks brace for nuclear challenge
    New data threaten to shake up 30 years of scientific dogma regarding how a cell carries out one of its most basic tasks: the translation of the genetic code into proteins. (p. 8)
  • Insight into preemies' blindness
    Lack of a growth factor called IGF-1 has been implicated as a trigger for a disease that can cause vision problems, including blindness, in premature babies. (p. 8)
  • Vitamin E benefits cattle, too
    Vitamin E aids immune system function and prevents growth declines in cattle, offering an alternative to potentially dangerous use of low-dose antibiotics. (p. 8)
  • Blood points to pollution's heart risks
    As airborne concentrations of fine dust particles climb, so do three blood factors that increase an individual's heart attack risk. (p. 9)
  • A foamy threat to ozone
    Shredding the foam insulation in discarded refrigerators can release significant quantities of chlorofluorocarbons, which pose a threat to Earth's protective ozone layer. (p. 9)
  • Faces of Perception
    Scientists who study face perception currently disagree strongly over whether newborn babies innately know what human faces look like and whether certain brain areas are solely responsible for distinguishing one face from another. (p. 10)
  • Telltale Heart
    Genetics is revealing the first steps in building a heart—the organ that is first to develop, subject to the most birth defects, and difficult to heal when damaged later in life. (p. 13)
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