More Stories from the April 15, 2000 issue
- Archaeology
Early New World Settlers Rise in East
New evidence supports the view that people occupied a site in coastal Virginia at least 15,000 years ago.
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Colossal study shows amphibian woes
The largest amphibian data set ever crunched—936 populations in 37 countries—confirms global declines.
- Health & Medicine
Panel ups RDAs for some antioxidants
An Institute of Medicine panel reported that dietary antioxidants such as vitamins A and E can limit cellular damage from free radicals but warned that studies in people have never adequately established a direct connection between antioxidant consumption and prevention of chronic disease.
- Astronomy
Are solar eruptions triggered a loopy way?
Astronomers have identified a new solar mechanism that may explain some coronal mass ejections.
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Trashed proteins may help immune system
Up to 30 percent of a cell's proteins get recycled as soon as they roll off the cellular assembly line.
- Earth
It’s high tide for ice age climate change
Tides may sometimes be strong enough to tug Earth into an ice age.
- Ecosystems
New protection for much-dogged shark
To rebuild northeastern U.S. populations of the spiny dogfish, the first fishing quotas on this species limit the harvest to roughly 10 percent of the 1998 haul.
- Tech
DNA embrace might drive micromachines
DNA interactions that bend tiny diving boards, or cantilevers, may open the door to powering micromachines by means of molecular reactions.
- Health & Medicine
Silencing the BRCA1 gene spells trouble
Some breast cancer patients without a mutation in the BRCA1 gene nevertheless have an incapacitated gene, silenced by a process called hypermethylation of nearby DNA.
- Chemistry
The power of caffeine and pale tea
The relatively rare brew known as white tea offers more caffeine than green tea—and perhaps more anticancer activity.
- Earth
A deadly threat in undeployed airbags
The extremely toxic and reactive chemical used to inflate airbags could cause risks to human health and wildlife if accidentally released into the environment.
- Chemistry
Unsung benefits of darker, tasty oils
Processing to erase the distinctive flavors and colors in cooking oils also removes or deactivates compounds that can defuse biologically damaging chemical reactions in the body.
- Chemistry
Nutty and fungi-ble taxol sources
The active ingredient in the anticancer drug taxol has turned up in hazelnuts and fungi.
- Chemistry
Coming up roses in scent research
Aroma chemists have discovered a carotenoid-processing enzyme that makes the chemicals that give rose oil its smell.
- Chemistry
Birth control for male cockroaches
Scientists have discovered a gene in German cockroaches that may lead to a new type of insect control—contraception for male cockroaches.
- Chemistry
Sweet tooth is in the genes
Taste researchers have narrowed the search for the sweet tooth gene, at least in mice, to a 100-gene region.
- Physics
Four ions mingle in quantum chorus
A new way to produce mysterious quantum correlations among particles ups the record to four particles linked, or entangled, and opens the door to correlating many more particles on cue, a prerequisite for making quantum computers.
- Physics
Prize honors physicist with conscience
Physicist-author Freeman J. Dyson received the Templeton prize for originality in advancing religious understanding.
- Animals
Music without Borders
When birds trill and whales woo-oo, we call it singing. Are we serious?
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