Elderly people with elevated concentrations of the amino acid homocysteine in their blood are more likely to break bones than are people with low amounts. (p. 307)

Explorations of the seafloor in the southern Gulf of Mexico have revealed lavalike flows of asphalt that are home to a thriving ecosystem of microbes, mussels, tubeworms, and crabs. (p. 307)

Extreme vibrations and high concentrations of tiny particles, such as cornstarch, in water can create holes in the liquid. (p. 308)

Toddlers will sometimes try to climb into a toy car or otherwise treat small objects as if they were large ones, possibly because their brains occasionally fail to integrate visual information about object size with object identity. (p. 308)

Researchers have created a bacterium that can incorporate artificial amino acids into their proteins. (p. 309)

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers have identified 26 galaxies that may be the youngest and most distant known. (p. 309)

Pollen wafting from bioengineered corn to traditional varieties may be undermining the fight to keep pests from evolving resistance to pesticides. (p. 310)

Tiny globules of water enclosed by thin shells of air in water that look like bubbles but don't act like them have recently become the objects of serious study. (p. 311)

By studying a puzzle that Archimedes pondered 2,200 years ago, mathematicians are obtaining new insights into its intriguing geometric structure. (p. 314)

The Gravity Probe B satellite, which was built to test aspects of general relativity, finally hurtled into space. (p. 316)

A new study homes in on why smokers may have a harder time staying warm in frigid environments. (p. 316)

A new analysis of fossil teeth indicates that Neandertals grew to maturity at a faster pace than people do. (p. 316)

A new library in Philadelphia is home to one of the world's most extensive and valuable collections of historical chemistry texts. (p. 316)

Large congregations of motorboats can produce enough carbon monoxide gas in open air to be hazardous to people. (p. 317)

Contravening a recent recommendation from one of its advisory panels, the Food and Drug Administration denied an application to make the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B available without a doctor's prescription. (p. 318)

A new molecule studded with magnetically active ions may soon help surgeons extract, with minimal cutting, lymph nodes likely to harbor cancer. (p. 318)

Researchers have fabricated a miniature diagnostic lab that can detect disease-linked genes in a small sample of whole blood. (p. 318)

A 505-million-year-old fossil provides hard proof of that ancient arthropods shed their exoskeletons during growth, just as their modern relatives do. (p. 318)

(p. 319)