Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Separation Anxiety: Cosmic collision may shed light on dark matter
The debris from an ancient collision of galaxy clusters seems to show cosmic dark matter behaving in a puzzling way.
-
Groomed for Trouble: Mice yield obsessive-compulsive insights
Mice lacking a gene that makes a certain brain protein display behaviors much like those of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a poorly understood psychiatric ailment.
- Animals
High Volume, Low Fidelity: Birds are less faithful as sounds blare
In noisy surroundings, normally faithful female zebra finches flirt with unfamiliar males.
-
19876
Researchers may only recently have discovered that female zebra finches are more likely to flirt with strangers when background noise goes up, but young male humans seem to have known that about females of their species for eons. Jim SchneringerDallas, Texas
- Health & Medicine
Infectious Obesity: Adenovirus fattens stem cells
Some cases of obesity may result from infection by a virus that can transform adult stem cells into fat-storing cells.
- Health & Medicine
If You Can Stomach It: Obesity surgery extends life span
Drastic weight loss achieved through gastric bypass and other stomach surgeries improves long-term survival for very obese people.
-
19875
This article states that “those who get the [bariatric] surgery live longer than those who don’t.” That raises the question whether liposuction to reduce a disproportionately large waistline in a nonobese person would yield medical benefits such as a reduced risk for coronary heart disease. Angela LamberthIndian Island, Maine
- Physics
Frizzed molecular carpets
Measurements of the speed with which heat travels along single hydrocarbon molecules could aid in the design of molecular electronics.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine targets ovarian-cancer cells
A vaccine for ovarian cancer enables some women who've undergone chemotherapy to stay in remission.
- Archaeology
Map yields new view of ancient city
A new map shows that Angkor, the world's largest preindustrial city, covered more than 1,000 square kilometers of what is now Cambodia and possessed an elaborate canal system.
- Computing
Squashing Worms
Defeating computer worms that mutate will take some smart defense strategies.
- Humans
Letters from the August 25, 2007, issue of Science News
Where did the chicken cross? “Chicken of the Sea: Poultry may have reached Americas via Polynesia,” (SN: 6/9/07, p. 356) states, “The most likely sea route ran north of Hawaii and down America’s Pacific coast.” The Polynesians were master mariners, so anything is possible, but continuing east from Tonga to South America is an extension […]
