New evidence links a placental protein to preeclampsia symptoms and may lead to new ways of detecting and treating the disease. (p. 147)

Mutations in two different genes, which lead to black fur in house cats, jaguars, and jaguarundis, may have protected the black felines from an epidemic long ago. (p. 147)

According to a new model, the universe may end with a Big Rip—every galaxy, star, planet, molecule, and atom torn asunder and the cosmos ceasing to exist some 21 billion years from now. (p. 148)

A protein called Ptprz binds with a bacterial toxin to produce ulcers in mice, possibly revealing a mechanism for the disorder. (p. 148)

Five of the six large glaciers that once fed into Antarctica's Larsen A ice shelf have sped up significantly since that floating ice mass collapsed and drifted away in January 1995. (p. 149)

A study conducted among low-income families in three states suggests that the emotional health and academic skills of preschoolers and young adolescents don't suffer when their mothers move off welfare and into the workforce. (p. 149)

A new polymer film chews itself apart under certain conditions, making it a potential candidate for the controlled delivery of therapeutic drugs. (p. 150)

A new way to sense traffic jams more quickly tracks the motion of trucks within the overall traffic flow. (p. 150)

Scientists who study biological responses to seasonal and climatic changes have noted that the annual cycles for many organisms are beginning earlier on average, as global temperatures rise. (p. 152)

Sometimes a nip of alcohol can indeed prove therapeutic, though usually not until middle age. (p. 155)

Excavations in the 17th-century fort at Jamestown, Va., have yielded a grave containing the skeleton of a high-ranking male colonist. (p. 157)

Downing a beer a day alters the structure of fibrinogen, a blood protein active in clotting. (p. 157)

Newly revealed protein structures show how a breast cancer drug functions. (p. 157)

Women who spontaneously lose one or more fetuses during early pregnancy are about 50 percent more likely than other women to later suffer ischemic heart disease. (p. 157)

Throughout most of the 1990s, the number of doctoral degrees that U.S. universities awarded in science and engineering climbed steadily, to 27,300 in 1998, but by 2001, the number had dropped to 25,500, the lowest number since 1993. (p. 157)

Beaming red light at rats soon after they've drunk methanol partially protects their eyes against that chemical's blinding effects. (p. 158)

Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to reach the fringes of the solar system, appears to have sent its last feeble signal to Earth on Jan. 22. (p. 158)

Elderly people with slightly elevated blood sugar are more likely to have short-term memory problems than those with normal blood sugar. (p. 158)