People who live to be nearly 100 and their offspring are more likely to have large cholesterol particles in their blood, a condition conducive to good health. (p. 243)

A snail with a shell spiraling to the right can't mate readily with a lefty, so changes in the single gene that controls shell direction have created new snail species. (p. 243)

Ancient albatross fossils suggest that rising sea levels 400,000 years ago wiped out the North Atlantic population of short-tailed albatross. (p. 244)

A study of Indian families before and after they began receiving an annual financial windfall supports the theory that poverty undermines psychological health, at least among children. (p. 244)

Evidence for the second particle ever found to include five of the fundamental building blocks known as quarks and antiquarks suggests that a whole family of such so-called pentaquarks exists. (p. 245)

A chemical that spurs growth of nerve cells during fetal development may provide a new way to treat severe chronic pain that results from nerve damage. (p. 245)

The 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors two researchers for their pioneering work on the structure and mechanisms of cell membrane channels, tiny pores that regulate the flow of ions and water molecules across cells. (p. 246)

A researcher who explores the nautical abilities of Stone Age people by building rafts and having crews row them across stretches of ocean contends that language and other cognitive advances emerged 900,000 years ago with Homo erectus, not considerably later among modern humans, as is usually assumed. (p. 248)

Economists are exploring the use of betting markets as tools for predicting the consequences of policy decisions by a government, corporation, or other institution. (p. 251)

The fossil remains of a sphenodontian, an ancient, lizardlike reptile, are helping fill a 120-million-year-old gap between this creature's ancestors and today's tuatara, sole survivors of the once prominent group. (p. 253)

Marine diets appear to explain why the incidence of prostate cancer among Inuit men is lower than that of males anywhere else in the world. (p. 253)

The European Space Agency launched its first lunar mission, which is scheduled to reach the moon in 2005 and will search for water that may lie in the moon's permanently shadowed craters. (p. 254)

Damaged cells may release uric acid to rouse the immune system. (p. 254)

Analyses of the atmosphere over the south-central United States show that gases emitted from the region's oil and natural gas industries contribute to air pollution—even over remote Kansas cornfields—that can surpass the noxious mix found in urban areas. (p. 254)

Shoe inserts with magnets have no more effect against foot pain than insoles without them. (p. 254)

Letters from the Oct. 18, 2003, issue of Science News. (p. 255)