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Magazine
In the Oct. 13 SN: 2018’s scientists to watch, superconductors heat up, the world’s oldest drawing, a sneaky superbug slayer, Ceres’ ice volcanoes, the birth of a neutron star, kidney stones close-up and more.
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News
Mice robbed of darkness fatten up
10/11/2010 - 15:02 Nutrition, Earth & Environment, Body & BrainWhen it comes to weight management, the timing of dining is pivotal, a new study indicates. At least in rodents, food proved especially fattening when consumed at the wrong time of day.
As nocturnal animals, mice normally play and forage at night, often in complete darkness. With even dim chronic illumination of their nighttime environment, however, the animals’ hormonal dinner bells...
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Food for Thought
It's Spud Time
12/18/2007 - 18:43 NutritionAs 2007 winds down, thoughts naturally turn towards what might lie ahead. Meals rich in high-carb tubers, perhaps? That's what the United Nations would like everyone to contemplate throughout 2008, which it is designating the International Year of the Potato.
Farmers now harvest more than 300 million tons of potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) worldwide. That makes it the fourth biggest food...
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Feature
Lettuce Liability
12/03/2007 - 19:41 AgricultureLittle more than a year ago, supermarkets from coast to coast stripped fresh spinach from produce aisles as a food-poisoning outbreak swept the nation. From mid-August through September 2006, virulent bacterial infections sickened at least 204 spinach consumers. Five died and 30 others suffered acute kidney failure.
Among more than 3,500...
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Food for Thought
Troubling Meaty 'Estrogen'
10/17/2007 - 01:38 NutritionWomen take note. Researchers find that a chemical that forms in overcooked meat, especially charred portions, is a potent mimic of estrogen, the primary female sex hormone. That's anything but appetizing, since studies have linked a higher lifetime cumulative exposure to estrogen in women with an elevated risk of breast cancer.
Indeed, the new finding offers a "biologically...
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News
Too Few Jaws: Shark declines let rays overgraze scallops
03/28/2007 - 11:47 AnimalsA shortage of big sharks along the U.S. East Coast is letting their prey flourish, and that prey is going hog wild, demolishing bay scallop populations.
That's the conclusion of researchers led by the late Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who died this week. Combining census surveys from the past 35 years, Myers' team...
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News
Fish Killer Caught? Ephemeral Pfiesteria compound surfaces
01/17/2007 - 08:43 ChemistryA team of researchers claims to have found an elusive algal toxin implicated in massive fish kills along the Mid-Atlantic coast in the 1990s. They say that the compound's characteristics explain why it has been so difficult to track down. Other researchers, however, remain skeptical.
The hunt for a toxic product of the single-celled alga Pfiesteria piscicida dates to the...
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Food for Thought
Birds Don't Have to Be So Hot
11/20/2006 - 14:15 NutritionLast week, Iowa State University issued a news release about how long it takes to cook a turkey if you place it into the oven frozen. The answer: 5.5 hours for a 13- to 15-pound bird cooked in a 325°F oven.
However, what really caught my attention was something a little lower in the release—that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had issued a statement earlier...
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News
Smoke Out: Bartenders' lungs appreciate ban
10/11/2006 - 08:51 Humans & SocietyPub workers in Scotland breathed easier and showed better respiratory health shortly after a nationwide ban on smoking inside public places went into effect earlier this year, scientists report.
Other research had suggested that worker health improves after a smoking ban, but this is the most comprehensive study to date, says pulmonologist Daniel Menzies of the University of...
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Food for Thought
Sea Turtles—What Not To Eat
09/14/2006 - 12:22 Earth & EnvironmentAt dozens of beaches around the world, huge female sea turtles come back each year at about the same time. They slowly haul themselves out of the water near the places they themselves hatched, dig shallow holes in the sand, and lay clutches of eggs. The predictability of the turtles' return has made capture of the endangered reptiles and their eggs a reliable bonanza for poachers.
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Food for Thought
Another Way Men and Women Differ
08/30/2006 - 16:24 NutritionAt least until menopause, women face a lower risk than men do of artery-clogging heart disease. Michigan scientists now turn up one potential reason: before menopause, one of the avenues for clearing meal-derived fats from the blood operates better in women than in men of the same age. This makes the fat less available to the plaque-forming cells in women's arterial walls.
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