More Stories from the August 5, 2006 issue
- Archaeology
Ancient rains made Sahara livable
New evidence indicates that seasonal rainfall more than 7,000 years ago turned Africa's eastern Sahara desert into a savannalike area that attracted an influx of foraging groups.
- Chemistry
Follow the lead
A new water-soluble, lead-sensing chemical is the first to detect the toxic metal in live cells.
- Humans
Named medical trials garner extra attention
Naming a medical trial with an acronym increases the frequency with which other researchers subsequently cite the study.
- Planetary Science
Close look confirms two eyes on Venus
A spacecraft that recently arrived at Venus has confirmed that the atmosphere above the planet's south pole harbors an unusual storm feature; a giant, double vortex.
- Health & Medicine
Drug rescues cells that age too fast
A new drug shows promise toward correcting the accelerated cellular aging typical of Werner syndrome.
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Social jet lag: Need a smoke?
People who persistently fight their biological clocks by rising early or going to bed late are more likely to become smokers.
- Tech
Tapping out a TAI-CHI tune
A new system permits people to make a keyboard and more out of a tabletop or any other hard surface.
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Virtual reality for earthquake fears
Using virtual reality technology to train children on how to cope with an earthquake helped reduce panic and evacuation performance during a later, real quake.
- Planetary Science
Titan’s Lakes: Evidence of liquid on Saturn’s largest moon
New radar images strongly suggest that Saturn's giant moon Titan contains lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, marking the first time that researchers have found compelling evidence for bodies of liquid on the surface of any object beyond Earth.
- Earth
What’s New in the Water? Survey tallies emerging disinfection by-products
By analyzing drinking-water samples from U.S. treatment plants, a multi-institute research team has identified some unexpected by-products of disinfection processes.
- Earth
Northern Refuge: White spruce survived last ice age in Alaska
Genetic analyses of white spruce trees at sites across North America suggest that some stands of that species endured the harsh climate of Alaska throughout the last ice age.
- Tech
Microbial Mug Shots: Telltale patterns finger bad bacteria
A sophisticated pattern-recognition technique that borrows from automated face recognition may permit identification of harmful bacteria faster and more cheaply than conventional methods do.
- Earth
Stung Lung: Volatile chemical may cut respiratory capacity
Para-dichlorobenzene, a chemical in some air fresheners and pest-control products, may slightly impair lung function in millions of people.
- Humans
Racial IQ Gap Narrows: Blacks gain 4 to 7 points on whites
African Americans reduced the racial gap on IQ-test scores by about one-third between 1972 and 2002.
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Autism’s Cell Off: Neural losses appear in boys, men with disorder
The brains of boys and men with autism, a developmental disorder that impairs communication and social interaction, contain low numbers of neurons in a structure involved in emotion and memory.
- Animals
Hot and hungry bees hit hot spots
New lab experiments suggest that bumblebees like warm flowers and can learn color cues to pick them out.
- Humans
Books for Late Summer
The writers of Science News present wide-ranging recommendations of books for readers to pack for their late-summer vacations.
- Humans
Preserving Paradise
President Bush has created the world's largest marine reserve, a no-fishing, no-disturbance zone, surrounding the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
- Humans
Letters from the August 5, 2006, issue of Science News
Rod is the spoiler While I applaud the work that is looking at the biochemical correlates of aggressive and delinquent behavior, it is important to emphasize that environmental factors still predominate when we are searching for the roots of violence (“Violent Developments: Disruptive kids grow into their behavior,” SN: 5/27/06, p. 328). Although there is […]
