More Stories from the April 15, 2006 issue
- Archaeology
Early farmers took time to tame wheat
Domesticated varieties of wheat emerged gradually in the prehistoric Near East over a roughly 3,000-year span.
- Animals
Hummingbirds can clock flower refills
Hummingbirds can keep track of when a particular flower has replenished its nectar and is worth visiting again.
- Planetary Science
Making Mercury
New computer simulations of Mercury's violent formation account for the planet's abundance of heavy elements and also reveal that some of the debris generated by the collision could have found its way to Earth and Venus.
- Planetary Science
Another visitor to Mars
The newest spacecraft from Earth arrived at the Red Planet on March 10.
- Health & Medicine
Breakfast trends
Although breakfasts tend to pack a lot of nutrition per typical calorie consumed, one in five U.S. residents skips this meal.
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Do flame retardants make people fat?
Fat cells exposed to brominated flame retardants undergo changes that would appear to foster obesity and type 2 diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Alcohol spurs cancer growth
Downing the human equivalent of two to four alcoholic drinks per day dramatically spurs the growth of cancers implanted in lab mice.
- Animals
Foodfree growth
Rattlesnakes undergo a hibernation-like state to survive long periods of famine, while continuing to grow longer.
- Anthropology
Branchless Evolution: Fossils point to single hominid root
Fossils of a 4.1-million-year-old human ancestor in Ethiopia bolster the controversial idea that early members of our evolutionary family arose one species at a time rather than branching out into numerous species.
- Health & Medicine
Microbe Hunt: Novel bacterium infects immune-deficient people
A newfound bacterium can cause illness in people who have a rare, inherited form of immune deficiency.
- Health & Medicine
Estrogen Safety: Studies raise cancer, blood clot questions
Two studies provide conflicting findings on estrogen therapy's effect on breast cancer risk, while a third study suggests that the hormone contributes to blood clot formation.
- Animals
Into Hot Water: Lab test shows that worms seek heat
Worms from deep-sea vents prefer water at temperatures near the upper limit of what animals are known to survive.
- Earth
Limited Storage: Lack of nutrients will constrain carbon uptake
Even though the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere acts as a fertilizer for plants, the planet's vegetation won't be able to sequester large amounts of that greenhouse gas in the long term because it will quickly run out of other nutrients.
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Sleeper Finding: Hormone key to hibernation?
A recently discovered hormone may play a major role in triggering and maintaining hibernation.
- Chemistry
Dynamic Duo: Two catalysts build valuable carbon chains
By combining the power of two well-known reactions, chemists have devised a way to alter the length of linear carbon chains.
- Planetary Science
Brilliant! Tenth planet turns out to be a shiner
Xena, unofficially called the 10th planet, is the second-most-shiny known object in the solar system.
- Plants
They’re All Part Fungus
Hidden deep in their tissues, all plants probably have fungi that don't make them sick but still may have a big influence.
- Earth
Region at Risk
Scientists are still analyzing the magnitude 7.9 quake that struck San Francisco a century ago and, at the same time, are scrambling to estimate when the next large quake will strike the Bay Area.
- Humans
Letters from the April 15, 2006, issue of Science News
Light shift Regarding “Blasts from the Past: Astronomers begin to go the distance with gamma-ray bursts” (SN: 2/11/06, p. 88), why is it that visible light is shifted to lower frequencies but gamma rays aren’t? Shouldn’t they have become X rays after all that distance? Stephen WoodOrlando, Fla. All wavelengths are redshifted. That means that […]
