More Stories from the April 7, 2007 issue
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Rare flower needs prickly neighbors
A flowering plant found only in Mauritius makes more fruit if dense stands of pandanus trees grow nearby.
- Earth
Wave’s-eye view of a hurricane
Strong hurricanes aren't as effective at transmitting their energy to the ocean's surface as weak ones are, a counterintuitive finding that may help researchers estimate the size of storm surges.
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Kill-save gene combo might fight malaria
A technique that might someday enlist mosquitoes in the fight against malaria has passed an early test.
- Earth
Freeze-thaw cycles: How not to mix soil
The repeated cycles of ground freezing and thawing that occur in many places don't do a surprising poor job of churning the soil.
- Earth
New solutions for unused drugs
Pharmacists and federal scientists have launched a program to discourage consumers from flushing unused prescription drugs down the toilet.
- Earth
On the move
A new study suggests how prions, the infectious agents that cause such disorders as chronic wasting disease, behave in soil and landfills.
- Health & Medicine
Patches take sting out of canker sores
Small patches that exude licorice extract can speed healing of canker sores.
- Health & Medicine
Meningitis vaccine stops ear infections
A vaccine for meningitis and pneumonia also prevents many childhood ear infections and the complications that they cause.
- Anthropology
Asian Trek: Fossil puts ancient humans in Far East
A 40,000-year-old partial human skeleton from a Chinese cave intensifies a debate over whether Stone Age people dispersing from Africa interbred with humanlike species that they encountered.
- Chemistry
That’s a Wrap: Polymer coatings fortify pancreas cells
A technique that encapsulates cells in polymer might one day benefit people who receive pancreas-cell transplants for diabetes.
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Mushroom Boom: Hobby records show climate-change boost
Mushrooms in England are starting to pop up earlier and staying around later than they used to, according to 55 years of amateur naturalists' records.
- Physics
Formula for Panic: Crowd-motion findings may prevent stampedes
The physics of pedestrian flows could help prevent stampedes such as the one that killed hundreds during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006.
- Health & Medicine
Not-So-Artful Dodgers: Countering drug tests with niacin proves dangerous
Attempts to cleanse illicit drugs from one's body by taking large doses of niacin can cause life-threatening reactions.
- Health & Medicine
Drug-Resistant Flu Detected: Japanese strains appear transmissible
For the first time, researchers report drug resistance in type B influenza virus and say the drug-resistant strain may jump from person to person.
- Planetary Science
No Escape: There’s global warming on Mars too
The overall darkening of Mars' surface in recent decades has significantly raised the Red Planet's temperature, a possible cause for the substantial, recent shrinkage of the planet's southern ice cap.
- Tech
Pictures Posing Questions
Radical new forms of photography use computation to transcend the limits of traditional cameras.
- Health & Medicine
A Gasping Heart
A common imperfection in the structure of the heart may exacerbate obstructive sleep apnea and, in mountaineers, trigger a life-threatening lung condition called high-altitude pulmonary edema.
- Humans
Letters from the April 7, 2007, issue of Science News
Winter wonders The theory of “nuclear winter” was originally put forward by an Eastern European mathematician in the 1980s (“Sudden Chill,” SN: 2/3/07, p. 72). Some months later, it was shown that an error in his original calculations so vastly exaggerated “nuclear winter” as to make it meaningless. Still, the dramatic concept of a “nuclear […]
