More Stories from the April 10, 2004 issue
- Health & Medicine
Exercise after breast cancer extends life
After a woman survives an initial bout with breast cancer, being physically active improves her odds of beating the disease over the long term.
- Health & Medicine
Papillomavirus infections spike in sunny months
Getting sun could increase vulnerability to a sexually transmitted virus that may lead to cervical cancer.
- Tech
Fluid lens flows into focus
By controlling a boundary between oil and water, researchers have created a liquid lens that can quickly alter its shape in response to electric signals.
- Anthropology
Gene implicated in apes’ brain growth
A gene with poorly understood functions began to accumulate favorable mutations around 8 million years ago and probably contributed to brain expansion in ancient apes.
- Earth
Inhaling your food—and its cooking fuel
Cooking emits easily inhaled pollutants that travel throughout a home and can linger for hours.
- Health & Medicine
SARS vaccine tests well in mouse model
Scientists have developed a DNA vaccine that stops the SARS infection in mice.
- Physics
A New Form of Water: Melting ice turns oddly dense
The density of a recently made film of water far exceeds that of ordinary water, suggesting that the film may be the first isolated sample of a proposed form of water thought to contribute to ordinary water's odd properties.
- Archaeology
Cat’s Cradle? New find pushes back origin of tamed felines
Archaeological finds on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus indicate that people domesticated cats by about 9,500 years ago, long before cat taming achieved prominence in ancient Egypt.
- Planetary Science
Martian Methane: Carbon compound hints at life
The presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere spotlights the possibility that there might be primitive life on the Red Planet.
- Chemistry
Molecular Midwives: Small helper compounds may have spawned early tools of life on Earth
Life on Earth may have sprung into being with the assistance of tiny molecules that are remarkably adept at stitching together DNA in the lab.
- Health & Medicine
Save the Brain: Study suggests new way to treat head trauma
A compound that stimulates nerve-cell activity may help the brain recover from serious head injuries.
- Animals
Flex That Bill: Hummingbirds’ surprising insect-catching style
High-speed videos of hummingbirds catching insects reveal that their lower bills are unexpectedly flexible.
- Health & Medicine
Double-Edged Drugs: Anti-inflammatories’ cancer effects vary by brand and tissue type
New research on anti-inflammatory medications being investigated as cancer treatments indicates that some of these drugs have secondary effects that could enhance or undermine their antitumor activity.
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Quite a Switch
Cells use ribonucleic acids that bind to small molecules such as vitamins to control gene activity.
- Earth
Tales of the Undammed
Although destroying dams is often presumed to restore rivers, the results of such action are actually mixed, according to recent studies.
- Humans
Letters from the April 10, 2004, issue of Science News
Inaction verbs? Regarding “The Brain’s Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas” (SN: 2/7/04, p. 83: The Brain’s Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas), did the researchers image the brains of disabled people who know the meaning of a verb but can’t perform the action, or of people without any […]
