Vol. 158 No. #29
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More Stories from the December 23, 2000 issue

  1. Humans

    Science News of the Year 2000

    A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2000.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Ganymede May Have Vast Hidden Ocean

    A combination of images, spectra, and magnetic field measurements suggests that in addition to Jupiter's moon Europa, another Jovian moon, Ganymede, may also have had—and might still harbor—an ocean.

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  3. Earth

    Salmon puzzle: Why did males turn female?

    Most of the spawning female Chinook salmon in one part of the Columbia River appear to have started life as males.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Drugs counteract irritable bowel syndrome

    Antibiotics can knock out bacteria overload in the small intestine, temporarily reversing irritable bowel syndrome.

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  5. Animals

    Birds may inherit their taste for the town

    Tests switching cliff swallow nestlings to colonies of different sizes suggest the birds inherit their preference for group size.

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  6. Math

    Proof clarifies a map-folding problem

    Researchers have developed an efficient algorithm to determine, given a collection of creases on a piece of paper, whether a sequence of simple folds produces a flat result, like a folded road map.

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  7. Chemistry

    Researchers stretch for improved surfaces

    A surprisingly simple, new technique could create better coatings for everything from medical implants to ship hulls.

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  8. Tech

    Ink-jet dots form transistor spots

    A new technique makes ink-jet printing of transistor circuits possible from conductive polymer inks.

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  9. Great tits inherit egg spots from mom

    An unusual study of eggshell spots suggests that there may be a gene for spottiness on the great tit's female sex chromosome.

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  10. Nightlife: Marsupial meets mistletoe

    A tiny marsupial in Argentina turns out to disperse mistletoe seeds, a job once presumed to be for the birds.

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  11. Paleontology

    Subway dig in L.A. yields fossil trove

    Fossil finds made when a subway line was extended from Los Angeles into the San Fernando Valley include bones of mastodons, ground sloths, extinct bison and camels, and 39 new species of fish.

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  12. Math

    Visions of Infinity

    Tiling a hyperbolic floor inspires both mathematics and art.

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  13. Plants

    Botany under the Mistletoe

    Twisters, spitters, and other flowery thoughts for romantic moments.

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  14. Humans

    Rodent Run

    Four little DNA-modified rats go to market.

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