Science News / July 14th, 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

July 14th, 2007

Tumor Suicide: Gene therapy makes cancer cells self-destruct

Microscopic bubbles of fat that deliver a suicide gene to tumor cells show success in treating pancreatic cancer in mice. (p. 19)
Sea Change: People have affected what penguins eat

Adélie penguins in Antarctica significantly changed their eating habits about 200 years ago, after whaling and other human activities transformed the ocean ecosystem. (p. 19)
E-Waste Hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals

People who live in an area of China where electronic devices are dismantled and recycled, as well as villagers 50 kilometers away, have high concentrations of flame retardants in their blood. (p. 20)
Smoke This: Parkinson's is rarer among tobacco users

Life-long smoking cuts the chance of getting Parkinson's disease by about half. (p. 20)
Shattering Find? Comet fragments show surprising uniformity

Close observations of fragments of a comet indicate that its interior was remarkably similar to its surface, meaning that repeated solar heating didn't much change its outer layers. (p. 21)
Forget About It: How the brain suppresses unwanted memories

Two newly discovered neural processes give people the ability to intentionally forget upsetting memories. (p. 21)
Pulling Strings: Stretching proteins can reveal how they fold

Unfolding a single protein by pulling on its ends reveals the molecular forces that make it fold up. (p. 22)
Passages

By observing the minieclipses known as transits, when a distant planet passes in front of its parent star, astronomers are learning more about the size, composition, and temperature of exoplanets. (p. 24)
Brain Attack

Although they have explored many promising ideas, scientists are finding it difficult to develop new treatments to limit the damage caused by ischemic strokes. (p. 26)
Mouse method turns skin cells to stem cells

Reprogrammed mouse skin cells that act as stem cells may offer an alternative for research involving embryos. (p. 29)
Dust delays Martian rover

A dust storm has delayed the descent of the Mars rover Opportunity into Victoria crater. (p. 29)
Gooey solution to a sticky problem

A new, gooey, and potentially useful protein has been extracted from the bodies of jellyfish that overpopulate the seas around Japan. (p. 29)
Hepatitis B drug creates HIV resistance

A hepatitis B drug spurs resistance to HIV drugs in people infected with both diseases. (p. 29)
As the last ice age waned, a great lake was born

Lake Agassiz, a huge and now vanished freshwater lake, formed almost 14,000 years ago, toward the end of the last ice age. (p. 30)
More bang for the biofuel buck

Microbes that ferment glycerol to ethanol could add an economically valuable new ingredient to the biofuel industry. (p. 30)
Adding to nature's repertoire

Modified mouse cells make proteins that include synthetic amino acids in addition to the 20 natural ones. (p. 30)
Anemone reveals complex past

The starlet sea anemone, a primitive creature with ancient evolutionary roots, has a surprisingly complex genome. (p. 30)
Letters from the July 14, 2007, issue of Science News

(p. 31)

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: