More Stories from the April 19, 2003 issue
- Physics
Light rambles through room-temperature ruby
Researchers have dramatically slowed light within a solid at room temperature.
- Health & Medicine
Shots stop allergic reactions to venom
An immune therapy prevents allergic reactions to the sting of the jack jumper ant, a pest common to Australia.
- Astronomy
Echoes of a stellar outburst
Light from the outburst of a star has revealed its dusty surroundings.
- Physics
Fusion device crosses threshold
By sparking thermonuclear reactions, a machine called Z has joined the big leagues among potential technologies for producing power from controlled nuclear fusion.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine didn’t cause heart deaths
Fatal heart attacks that recently struck two people after they were vaccinated against smallpox were probably unfortunate coincidences, not adverse consequences of vaccination.
- Health & Medicine
Africa faces new meningitis threat
A vaccine-resistant and previously rare strain of deadly bacteria caused an epidemic of meningitis last year in western Africa and seems to have disseminated around the world.
- Health & Medicine
Transfusions and transplants spread West Nile virus
Donated blood and organs should be screened to prevent transmission of West Nile virus, federal officials say.
- Health & Medicine
Body wraps caused rash of rashes
A CDC investigator has linked an outbreak of skin infections to unsanitary practices at a body wrap salon.
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Gestures help words become memorable
Relevant hand gestures make a speaker's words more memorable to listeners, whereas inappropriate hand gestures undermine recall for what was previously said.
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Left brain hammers out tool use
Structures in the brain's left hemisphere coordinate the ability to use familiar tools such as hammers and saws.
- Materials Science
Invent by Number: Researchers predict, then produce superior titanium alloys
Researchers have developed a new method or making titanium-based alloys with many qualities far superior to those in any alloy previously known.
- Materials Science
Between the Sheets: In reactors and nanotubes, errant atoms get a grip
A new computer simulation predicts that neutron irradiation of graphite displaces atoms and bonds in unexpected ways.
- Paleontology
Fertile Ground: Snippets of DNA persist in soil for millennia
Minuscule samples of sediment from New Zealand and Siberia have yielded bits of DNA from dozens of animals and plants, including the oldest DNA sequences yet found that can be traced to a specific organism.
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Neural Recall: Brain area may support fact and event memory
A brain structure called the hippocampus may crucially influence memory for both factual information and personally experienced events.
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Radiation Marks Chromosomes: Plutonium leaves genetic fingerprint
By examining specific types of long-lasting genetic rearrangements in blood cells, researchers have found a way to measure a person's past exposures to plutonium radiation.
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Moving On: Now the human genome is really done
An international consortium of scientists announced that the deciphering of the human genetic code is now truly complete.
- Health & Medicine
Protein Pump: Experimental therapy fights Parkinson’s
Bathing surviving dopamine-making neurons with a natural protein that induces nerve-fiber growth reverses some of the symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients.
- Animals
Fishy Paternity Defense: Bluegill dads: Not mine? Why bother?
Bluegill sunfish have provided an unusually tidy test of the much-discussed prediction that animal dads' diligence in child care depends on how certain they are that the offspring really are their own.
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Happy Anniversary
In the 50 years since the discovery of DNA's double helix structure, scientists have developed striking new ways to visualize the molecule.
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Words Get in the Way
New studies explore people's tendency to have trouble recalling faces or other hard-to-describe perceptions after giving verbal accounts of them, with an eye toward improving police interviewing techniques with crime eyewitnesses.
