Science News / June 2nd, 2007

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In This Issue

Sequencing the dead to save the living: Reviving ancient genomes of long-extinct creatures offers a window into past extinctions—and may help prevent future die outs
No gene is an island: Even as biologists catalog the discrete parts of life forms, an emerging picture reveals that life’s functions arise from interconnectedness
The decider: Informing the debate over the reality of ‘free will’ requires learning something about the lateral habenula
This week's table of contents

June 2nd, 2007

Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did a comet blow up over eastern Canada?

An extraterrestrial object apparently exploded above Canada about 12,900 years ago, sparking devastating wildfires and triggering a millennium-long cold spell. (p. 339)
Early Start: Fetuses generate immune response to vaccination

A fetus can manufacture immune cells and antibodies in direct response to vaccine given to the mother during pregnancy. (p. 339)
Pothole Pals: Ants pave roads for fellow raiders

By throwing their bodies into tiny potholes on rough trails, army ants enable their comrade to race over them, improving the colony's overall foraging success. (p. 340)
Visualizing Cancer: Images of tumors can detect gene expression

Subtle features in X-ray images of tumors let radiologists infer which genes are active in the cancerous growth. (p. 341)
Packaging Peril: Chemicals in food wrapping turn toxic

Chemicals that prevent grease from seeping through food packaging can transform into a suspected carcinogen. (p. 341)
Take a Number: Kids show math insights without instruction

Kindergartners can solve relatively complex addition and subtraction problems if allowed to use their intuitive grasp of approximate quantities rather than being required to calculate exact solutions. (p. 341)
Magnetic Logic: Electron spins could do cool calculations

Novel circuits use electrons as tiny bar magnets to process information. (p. 342)
Powering the Revolution

Sensors and other electronic devices that can scavenge energy could open a new realm for technology. (p. 344)
Slime Dwellers

The health of corals, and their adaptability in the face of adversity, may rest largely on the microbes they recruit into a slime that coats their surfaces. (p. 346)
Stem cells not required

Insulin-producing cells in the pancreas proliferate by cell division, unlike other body tissues, which regenerate from adult stem cells. (p. 350)
Powering Enceladus' plumes

The action of Saturn's gravity is responsible for plumes of water vapor shooting out from cracks on the moon Enceladus. (p. 350)
Carbon's mysterious magnetism

An X-ray experiment has yielded the most conclusive evidence to date that carbon can be magnetic. (p. 350)
Using seismometers to monitor glaciers

Seismic instruments could be used to estimate the amount of ice that shears away from glaciers as they flow into the sea, offering a way to better estimate sea level rise due to the breakup of those ice masses. (p. 350)
Letters from the June 2, 2007, issue of Science News

(p. 351)

Blogs:

Science & the Public Is Your Fish Oil Polluted?
By Janet Raloff Nov 20th 2008

Columns:

Comment Debates over definition of planet continue and inspire
By Alan Stern Nov 21st 2008

Math Trek How to (really) trust a mathematical proof
By Julie Rehmeyer
Mathematicians develop computer proof-checking systems in order to realize century-old dreams of fully precise, accurate mathematics. Nov 14th 2008

Bulletin Board: