A substantial minority of medical patients treated for acute conditions at a British hospital lacked the ability to make informed decisions about their care, although their physicians usually didn't recognize it. (p. 259)

Researchers have created freestanding carbon films as thin as one atom. (p. 259)

Mustard plants' immune systems can react to traces of bacteria with a burst of nitric oxide, much as an animal's immune system does. (p. 260)

Bacteria that rely on a chemical derived from the breakdown of caffeine for their survival could help lead to the development of decaffeinated coffee plants. (p. 260)

A well-preserved, 121-million-year-old fossilized bird embryo has several features that suggest that the species' young could move about and feed themselves very soon after they hatched. (p. 261)

Interrupted blood flow in people with sickle-cell disease might arise from stickiness inherent in the unusual red blood cells these individuals have. (p. 261)

Some young planets continue to take a beating hundreds of millions of years after they've formed. (p. 262)

Financially endangered companies rapidly reorganized to become profitable after key staff members ran simulated companies in 2-day sessions organized by a San Diego psychologist. (p. 263)

Encouraging results from research on medical uses for maggots and leeches, coupled with recent government approval of both therapies, lend credibility to the idea that some live organisms deserve a place in the medical armamentarium. (p. 266)

To help conservationists restore paintings to their original glory without damaging the original paint, chemists have developed a cleaning product that switches from a liquid to a gel. (p. 269)

Video cameras set up in a central-African forest have recorded the sophisticated ways in which local chimpanzees catch termites for eating. (p. 269)

Cataract surgery might get a little easier, thanks to a transparent gel that seals surgical incisions in the eye better than standard sutures do. (p. 269)

Variations in a single gene may have dramatically increased the virulence of 1918 Spanish flu. (p. 269)

By skewing the alignment of pits on an optical disk's surface, disk makers might store much more than one bit per pit. (p. 270)

New evidence supports the theory that Mexican blind cavefish are sightless by evolutionary selection, not chance. (p. 270)

At the right length and conductivity, ultrathin filaments of carbon known as carbon nanotubes can receive visible light waves in the same the way as larger antennas receive radio signals. (p. 270)

By laser-zapping nanocapsules of water, scientists find that the specific molecular motions caused by the excitation, not just simple heat diffusion, determine how energy and heat flow through such minuscule structures. (p. 270)

(p. 271)