More Stories from the January 31, 2004 issue
- Health & Medicine
Drug fails in autism study
In the most extensive test so far of its capability to treat autism, the controversial drug secretin has failed to help children with the neurological disorder.
- Archaeology
Lion skeleton found in Egyptian tomb
Archaeologists found the skeleton of a once-mummified lion at an Egyptian site dating to more than 2,000 years ago, confirming suspicions that lions were revered as sacred animals.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis
Women who consume little vitamin D develop multiple sclerosis at a rate about 50 percent higher than those who get lots of the nutrient.
- Astronomy
Scoping out a stellar nursery
Penetrating a veil of dust, a space-based infrared observatory has recorded the most complete portrait ever taken of a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy.
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Growth factors make an egg grow up
Scientists have identified growth factors that enable a female mammal's eggs to mature.
- Physics
New signs of shadow particles
The influence of as-yet-undiscovered heavy particles outside of today's prevailing theory of particle physics may have accelerated the rate at which subatomic muons wobbled in a recent experiment.
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Juggling takes stage as brain modifier
Marked volume increases occur in visual areas of the brain as people learn to juggle and then are partly reversed when the budding jugglers stop practicing their newfound skill, a brain-scan investigation finds.
- Physics
Skipping stones 101
Using their own stone-skipping machine, physicists have found what may be the best angle for a rock to hit the water in order to achieve the most skips.
- Materials Science
Flexible E-Paper: Plastic circuits drive paperlike displays
In a major step toward electronic paper, researchers have made electronic-ink displays on flexible plastic sheets.
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- Planetary Science
Red Planet Roundup: Opportunity knocks; Spirit revives
The NASA rover Opportunity bounced onto an equatorial Martian plain early on Jan. 25 and found an intriguing outcropping of rocks on the other side of the planet from where its ailing but recovering twin, Spirit, had recently stalled.
- Health & Medicine
Good to the Bone: Strontium compound prevents some fractures
An experimental drug containing strontium makes bones denser and decreases the risk of fractures, a study of elderly women finds.
- Health & Medicine
Wine Surprise: Heart-protective effect is independent of antioxidants
Two studies in mice suggest that, if wine protects against heart disease, it's probably not because of the antioxidants that the drink contains.
- Materials Science
Pumping Carbon: Researchers watch nanofibers grow
The first atomic-scale movies of carbon nanofiber growth show particles of a metal catalyst pulsating wildly while carbon and metal atoms scuttle across the particle’s surface.
- Animals
Vanishing Vultures: Bird deaths linked to vet-drug residues
The recent puzzling crash in vulture populations in Pakistan comes not from some new disease but from exposure to veterinary drug residues in livestock carcasses.
- Humans
The Chosen: A New Crop of Scientific Minds; Student science competition announces finalists
Forty high school students from 14 states and the District of Columbia have been selected to compete for the top prizes in the 2004 Intel Science Talent Search.
- Health & Medicine
Telltale Charts
Overturning a basic tenet of conventional wisdom in cardiology, new research suggests that more than half the people who develop heart disease first show one of the warning signs of smoking, having diabetes, or having high blood pressure or cholesterol.
- Earth
Danger on Deck?
The Environmental Protection Agency no longer allows residential installation of pressure-treated lumber and recommends the application of sealant to prevent leaching of carcinogens out of existing lumber structures.
