Skip to content

Enjoy unlimited access

Only $2.99 a month

All Topics
- Health
- Humans
- Life
- Earth
- Physics
- Space

Magazine
Menu
About
SN Explores
Our Store

Donate

Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN

Search

Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921

All Topics
- Earth
- Humans
- Life
  - Animals
  - Plants
  - Ecosystems
  - Paleontology
  - Neuroscience
  - Genetics
  - Microbes
- Physics
- Space
- Tech
  - Computing
  - Artificial Intelligence
- Chemistry
- Math
- Science & Society
Health
Humans
- Humans
- Recent posts in Humans
  - Chemistry
    A chemical in plastics is tied to heart disease deaths
    
    By Skyler Ware12 hours ago
  - Archaeology
    Neandertals may have hunted in horse-trapping teams 200,000 years ago
    
    By Bruce BowerMay 9, 2025
  - Health & Medicine
    How to fight Lyme may lie in the biology of its disease-causing bacteria
    
    By Leah RosenbaumMay 9, 2025
Life
- Life
  - Animals
  - Plants
  - Ecosystems
  - Paleontology
  - Neuroscience
  - Genetics
  - Microbes
- Recent posts in Life
  - Animals
    This tool-wielding assassin turns its prey’s defenses into a trap
    
    By Siddhant Pusdekar8 hours ago
  - Environment
    Skyborne specks of life may influence rainfall patterns
    
    By Nikk Ogasa14 hours ago
  - Animals
    Chimp chatter is a lot more like human language than previously thought
    
    By Jake BuehlerMay 9, 2025
Earth
- Earth
- Recent posts in Earth
  - Animals
    This tool-wielding assassin turns its prey’s defenses into a trap
    
    By Siddhant Pusdekar8 hours ago
  - Environment
    Skyborne specks of life may influence rainfall patterns
    
    By Nikk Ogasa14 hours ago
  - Oceans
    Before altering the air, microbes oxygenated large swaths of the sea
    
    By Nikk OgasaMay 7, 2025
Physics
- Physics
- Recent posts in Physics
  - Health & Medicine
    Lining medical stents with hairlike fuzz could fend off infections
    
    By McKenzie PrillamanMay 6, 2025
  - Physics
    Physicists explain how cheese rosettes form
    
    By Emily ConoverMay 6, 2025
  - Physics
    Here’s how we might generate electricity from rain
    
    By Jude ColemanApril 29, 2025
Space
- Space
- Recent posts in Space
  - Space
    A Soviet spacecraft has returned to Earth
    
    By Lisa GrossmanMay 5, 2025
  - Astronomy
    A gas cloud 5,500 times as massive as the sun lurks nearby
    
    By Mara Johnson-GrohMay 2, 2025
  - Space
    See how the Hubble Space Telescope is still revolutionizing astronomy
    
    By Katherine KorneiApril 24, 2025

Feature

One-Way Molecules Channel Electric Current

Share this:

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Pocket
Reddit
Print

By Science News

Magazine Issue: Vol. 152 No. #19, November 8, 1997

Having trouble viewing this? Open in a new window

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ

A version of this article appears in the November 8, 1997 issue of Science News.

We are at a critical time and supporting climate journalism is more important than ever. Science News and our parent organization, the Society for Science, need your help to strengthen environmental literacy and ensure that our response to climate change is informed by science.

Please subscribe to Science News and add $16 to expand science literacy and understanding.

Related Stories

Animals
This tool-wielding assassin turns its prey’s defenses into a trap

By Siddhant Pusdekar8 hours ago
Chemistry
A chemical in plastics is tied to heart disease deaths

By Skyler Ware12 hours ago
Environment
Skyborne specks of life may influence rainfall patterns

By Nikk Ogasa14 hours ago

Science News

Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483).

Science News Explores
Science News Learning

Subscriber Services

Subscribe
Renew
Give a Gift Subscription
Customer Service

Follow Science News on Facebook
Follow Science News on X
Follow Science News via RSS
Follow Science News on Instagram
Follow Science News on YouTube
Follow Science News on TikTok

More Information

FAQ
Newsletters
Rights & Permissions
Advertise
Contact

Society for Science

About the Society
Society Store
Donate
Careers

© Society for Science & the Public 2000–2025. All rights reserved.

1719 N St. NW, Washington, DC 20036 202.785.2255

Terms of Service Privacy Policy

Log in

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.

Not a subscriber?
Become one now.

Client key* E-mail Address*