More Stories from the February 28, 2009 issue
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Materials ScienceSuperconductors escape Flatland
Iron-based materials allow 3-D current flow, open new doors for understanding superconductivity.
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Health & Medicine
Donating a kidney doesn’t hurt long-term health
A survey of donors since the 1960s finds survival rates on par with the general population.
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Health & Medicine
Fingerprints filter the vibrations fingers feel
A new robotics study suggests that the ridges select the right frequencies for light touch
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Life
Serotonin turns shy locusts into cereal killers
Serotonin can turn solitary locusts into swarming biblical-scale crop destroyers.
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Humans
When dreams come true
People see hidden truths in their dreams and use dreams to guide waking attitudes and behaviors, especially when dream content supports pre-existing beliefs, researchers say.
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Health & Medicine
Chocolate may have arrived early to U.S. Southwest
A new study suggests that people in America’s Southwest were making cacao beverages as early as A.D. 1000.
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Space
Smallest known transiting planet discovered
Astronomers have found the smallest known extrasolar planets that is blocking light from its parent star. The discovery could help reveal information about the structure of planets that may resemble Earth.
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Life
Earliest whales gave birth on land
Recently discovered fossils of a protowhale help fill in gaps in the land-to-water transition.
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Space
Early galaxy bulges in the middle
By tracing star birth in a galaxy that existed when the universe was less than 1 billion years old, researchers have captured what appears to be the formation of a key galactic component — a central concentration of stars known as the bulge.
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Earth
Animal ancestors may have survived ‘snowball Earth’
Chemical fossils in Precambrian sedimentary rock push back the first date for animal life.
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Health & Medicine
How the body rubs out West Nile virus
Tests in mice show how the immune system tracks down cells infected with West Nile virus, findings that might explain why some old people fare worst from the virus.
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Genetics
Dog gene heeds call of the wild
Domesticated dogs passed a gene for dark fur color to their wild cousins.
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Humans
Women have hormonal cues for baby cuteness
Premenopausal women and women taking oral contraceptives are especially sensitive to the cuteness of babies’ faces, partly thanks to raised levels of reproductive hormones, a new study suggests.
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Science Future for February 28, 2009
Until March 1 Vote for one of six astronomical objects for the Hubble Space Telescope to observe in honor of the International Year of Astronomy. See the candidates at youdecide.hubblesite.org March 6 “Sacred Waters: India’s Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage” opens at The Field Museum in Chicago. Learn more at www.fieldmuseum.org April 24 Arbor Day will […]
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Me and the Biospheres: A Memoir by the Inventor of Biosphere 2
All about the world’s largest global ecology lab. Synergetic Press, 2009, 308 p., $39.95 Me and the Biospheres: A Memoir by the Inventor of Biosphere 2 by John Allen
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The Computer as Crucible: An Introduction to Experimental Mathematics by Jonathan Borwein and Keith Devlin
Experimental math embraces computers. A K Peters, 2009, 158 p., $29.95 The Computer as Crucible: An Introduction to Experimental Mathematics by Jonathan Borwein and Keith Devlin
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Prairie Dogs: Communication and Community in an Animal Society by C.N. Slobodchikoff, Bianca S. Perla and Jennifer L. Verdolin
An investigation into how prairie dogs communicate a predator’s presence. Harvard Univ., 2009, 264 p., $39.95 Prairie Dogs: Communication and Community in an Animal Society by C.N. Slobodchikoff, Bianca S. Perla and Jennifer L. Verdolin
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The Atom and the Apple: Twelve Tales from Contemporary Physics by Sébastien Balibar
A physicist explores chaos, cosmology, fluid mechanics and more. Princeton Univ., 2008, 190 p., $24.95 The Atom and the Apple: Twelve Tales from Contemporary Physics by Sébastien Balibar
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Book Review: Sand: The Never-Ending Story by Michael Welland
Sand, despite what one character in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind claims, is more than just tiny little rocks. Sure, around 70 percent of the 1 billion or so sand grains born around the world each second are grains of quartz — bits of plain old silicon dioxide that have eroded from […]
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Book Review: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Americans love the pla … err, dwarf pla … err, plutoid Pluto. The feeling is so strong, in fact, that it sparked an overwhelming public outcry when in 2006 the International Astronomical Union kicked Pluto from the planet club, writes astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson. His latest book chronicles the history, science and controversy that ultimately […]
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Humans
Nation needs recovery plan for science faculty jobs
Over the past few months, many graduate students and postdocs have been receiving letters from department chairs apologetically explaining that the faculty job search at Institution X has been canceled. State and private universities are facing declining tax revenues and falling endowments, and are unwilling to raise tuition on newly impoverished families. From Harvard to […]
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Space
Cosmic mystery
There’s an air of excitement in the astrophysics community, created by a surplus of particles from space invading Earth’s atmosphere. COSMIC RAYS | Two experiments have detected unusual patterns in cosmic rays pouring into Earth’s atmosphere. One possible source of the unusual rays, which are actually particles, could be a supernova and its cone of […]
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Life
Mitochondria Gone Bad
The patient, known as only “MBM,” was just 7 years old the first time doctors saw her. She had always been prone to night sweats, but now excessive perspiration was forcing her to change clothes several times a day. She was endlessly thirsty, fatigued and losing weight despite a voracious appetite. A dozen years later, […]
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Earth
First wave
The Maldives, a chain of some 1,200 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, sits about 700 kilometers southwest of Sri Lanka and lures more than half a million adventurers each year. They come to this smallest of Asian countries to scuba dive, surf, fish and cruise in picturesque atolls known for white sandy […]
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Letters
Galaxy clusters slide Could the general motion of galaxy clusters (“Galaxy clusters slide to the south,” SN: 10/25/08, p. 12) be evidence of rotational motion of the matter components of the universe on a scale much larger than the observable universe? Would such motion not also result in accelerating expansion of the observable universe, as […]
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Science Past for February 28, 1959
WEATHER SATELLITE ORBITING — The United States has launched into orbit the first baby weather station in space. It was hurled into its earth-circling path at 10:55 a.m. Feb. 17, and its predicted lifetime is several decades. The batteries powering the radio transmitting weather information, however, have only a two-week lifetime. The 20-inch, 21.5-pound satellite […]
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Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension by Andy Clark
Minds aren’t limited to the confines of the brain. Oxford Univ., 2008, 286 p., $35 Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension by Andy Clark