More Stories from the April 28, 2007 issue
- Planetary Science
A hexagon on the ringed planet
NASA scientists are puzzled by a giant, hexagon-shaped feature that covers Saturn's entire north pole.
- Animals
Killer mice hit seabird chicks
A surveillance video shows a worrisome sight: house mice nibbling to death rare seabird chicks on a remote island breeding colony.
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Uncommon cancer gets start in muscle cells
Synovial sarcoma, a cancer thought to arise from joint tissue, actually forms in nascent muscle cells, a mouse study shows.
- Earth
Dry winters heat European summers
When southern Europe receives scant rainfall in the winter, the whole continent tends to bake the following summer.
- Physics
Liquid origami
A French team has created the first mini-origami figures that fold themselves around droplets of water.
- Health & Medicine
No heart risk from hormones taken near menopause
Contrary to some earlier indications, hormone replacement therapy might not impart heart risks to women who take it during their 50s.
- Physics
Fermilab could beat CERN to the punch
A new particle accelerator starting up next year in Switzerland should finally discover the origin of mass, unless an older U.S. machine does it first.
- Physics
Putting Einstein to the test
A NASA mission has found new evidence for Einstein's theory of gravity, but its final results have been delayed by unexpected problems.
- Planetary Science
In the Zone: Extrasolar planet with the potential for life
Astronomers this week announced that they had found Earth's closest known analog outside the solar system, an object with an average temperature that may allow water to be liquid on its surface.
- Health & Medicine
Inherited Burden? Early menarche in moms tied to obesity in kids
Women who reach puberty at an early age are more likely to have children who are overweight.
- Animals
Living Fossil: DNA puts rodent in family that’s not extinct after all
The Laotian rock rat, which is very much alive, belongs to a rodent family that supposedly vanished 11 million years ago.
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Sleep on It: Time delay plus slumber equals memory boost
Sleep revs up a person's ability to discern connections among pieces of information encountered in novel situations.
- Earth
Pregnancy and Pollution: Women living in areas with poor air quality have babies with lower birthweights
Pregnant women exposed even to moderate amounts of several common air pollutants tend to have babies with low birthweights.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes from Depression: Older adults face dual risk
Adults 65 and older who report depressive symptoms are 50 to 60 percent more likely to develop diabetes than are their peers.
- Earth
Ash Detector: Laser device could protect aircraft in flight
Analysis of a volcanic plume that wafted over central Alaska suggests that polarized laser beams can detect airborne ash, which can be a threat to aircraft.
- Anthropology
Children of Prehistory
Accumulating evidence suggests that children and teenagers produced much prehistoric cave art and perhaps left behind many fledgling attempts at stone-tool making as well.
- Earth
Flotsam Science
Researchers have harnessed the power of flotsam—floating items as diverse as tennis shoes, tub toys, and hockey gloves—to chart the path and speed of the Pacific Subarctic Gyre, a group of currents in the North Pacific Ocean.
- Humans
Letters from the April 28, 2007, issue of Science News
Long ago gas Finding CO2 levels that are 2,500 times higher in 5,000-year-old fulgurites than in modern samples, scientists have speculated that the extra CO2 resulted from vaporization of organic material by lightning (“Stroke of Good Fortune: A wealth of data from petrified lightning,” SN: 2/17/07, p. 101). Could some of this gas reflect elevated […]
