February 12th, 2000

In the December 5 Issue:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Climate might be right for a deal: Copenhagen negotiations will take steps toward a climate-stabilizing treaty
Botanical Whales: Adventures in the Tortugas reveal that seagrass fields need saving too
Breaking the Speed Limit: Studies examine physiology and technology to better foresee the ultimate edge of human performance

February 12th, 2000

Researchers Probe Cell-Phone Effects

Scientists are trying to find out whether biological changes associated with cell-phone use represent health risks. (p. 100)
Drugs order bacteria to commit suicide

Seeking to explain how antibiotics work, scientists find a protein that commands bacteria to kill themselves. (p. 100)
Solar magnetism: Memories are made of this

Despite all its upheavals, the sun's magnetic field has a built-in memory, allowing it to return to its original position and configuration. (p. 101)
R&D budget should ease biomed envy

President Clinton's science budget for 2001 proposes to narrow a gap that's yawned in recent years between lusher funding for biomedicine and leaner support for the physical sciences. (p. 102)
Sleepyheads' brains veer from restful path

Unusual patterns of brain activity appear in sleep-deprived volunteers trying to solve verbal and mathematical problems. (p. 103)
Stopping batteries from starting fires

A new flame-retardant substance could make rechargeable lithium-ion batteries practical for powering electric vehicles. (p. 103)
Flight puts the fight back into crickets

Researchers are just discovering what gamblers in China have known for centuries—flying can make a losing cricket fight again. (p. 104)
Ultracold molecules form inside superatom

The formation of molecules within an ultracold gas of atoms called a Bose-Einstein condensate could be a step toward fluids in which molecules share the same quantum state. (p. 104)
Revved-Up Universe

Astronomers are busy testing the seemingly bizarre notion that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. (p. 106)
AIDS drugs may cause bone loss

Using X rays to measure bone density in HIV-infected men, researchers find a possible link between bone loss and long-term use of protease inhibitors. (p. 109)
HIV may date back to the 1930s

Genetic analysis of the AIDS virus suggests it first infected humans in the first third of the 20th century. (p. 109)
One more reason to worry

A single dose of the AIDS drug nevirapine, given to mothers to help prevent them from infecting their children during birth, may be enough to prod the virus to develop drug resistance. (p. 109)
Spectral atom rings in

Electron waves can generate a phantom atom when a real atom is placed at the right spot inside an elliptical quantum corral, or loop of atoms, arranged on a surface. (p. 109)
Keeping Bugs from Pumping Drugs

Researchers hope that attacking the machinery some microbes use to pump antimicrobial agents out of their cells may help deal with the increasing problem of drug resistance. (p. 110)

Blogs:

Science & the Public Case of the toxic gingerbread man
By Janet Raloff Nov 21st 2009

On the Scene Changing the paradigm around Alzheimer's disease
By Science News Staff Nov 16th 2009

Columns:

Comment From fringe to electromicrobiological mainstream
By Ken Nealson Nov 20th 2009

Math Trek The four color problem gets a sharp new hue
By Julie Rehmeyer Mar 6th 2009

Not to Miss:

SN Special: The Science of Slumber

Interview: Murray Gell-Mann

SN Special: Darwin Turns 200

2008: Science News of the Year

SN Bookshelf:

Quantum Leaps by Jeremy Bernstein
Review by Tom Siegfried
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Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene
A cognitive neuroscientist describes how the brain has adapted to reading and what can cause reading...
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