More Stories from the January 19, 2008 issue
- Humans
Transport emissions sizable, and rising
Almost one-sixth of the carbon dioxide produced by human activity since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution resulted from the transport of goods and people—an emissions fraction that's increasing by the year.
- Health & Medicine
Night lights may foster cancer
Regularly working through the night appears to come at a steep cost—a heightened risk of cancer.
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- Animals
Butterfly’s clock linked to compass
The most detailed look yet at the monarch butterfly's daily rhythm keeper suggests it's closer to ancient forms than to the fruit fly's or mouse's inner clock.
- Health & Medicine
Sleep disruption and glucose processing
Shallow sleep can depress the body's ability to process glucose efficiently.
- Earth
Switchgrass may yield biofuel bounty
Making ethanol from switchgrass yielded more than 5 times more energy than needed to grow the crops in a large-scale farming trial.
- Health & Medicine
HIV variant might help vaccine search
Scientists have discovered an unusual HIV protein in a Kenyan woman that makes the virus vulnerable to antibodies.
- Earth
Bird’s-eye view of Antarctic ice loss
Satellite images of Antarctica between 1992 and 2006 indicate that the continent was losing ice much faster at the end of that period than it was a decade before.
- Health & Medicine
Getting the Red Out: Drug improves kids’ psoriasis symptoms
The rheumatoid arthritis drug etanercept clears up psoriasis in children and may become the first systemic medication for the ailment in youngsters.
- Health & Medicine
Phoenix Heart: Replacing a heart’s cells could ease transplants
Scientists removed all the cells from a dead rat heart, injected new heart cells, and produced a beating heart, paving the way for eventually growing organs for transplantation in humans.
- Physics
Dusty Fireball: Can lab-made blob explain ball lightning?
Artificial cousins of ball lightning contain microscopic particles, just like a model says they should. With video.
- Humans
A Thirst for Meat: Changes in diet, rising population may strain China’s water supply
Rapid industrialization, an increase in population, and a growing dietary preference for meat in China are straining the country's water resources to the point where food imports probably will be needed to meet demand in coming decades.
- Astronomy
Second Time Around: Some old stars may make new planets
Two old stars appear to have been rejuvenated and may be undergoing a new wave of planet formation hundreds of millions to billions of years after young stars normally do.
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When Mice Fly: Bat DNA leads to longer limbs in mouse embryos
Mice with a stretch of bat DNA grow longer limbs, a possible step in the evolutionary path to wings.
- Anthropology
Infectious Voyagers: DNA suggests Columbus took syphilis to Europe
A genetic analysis of syphilis and related bacterial strains from different parts of the world fits the theory that Christopher Columbus and his crew brought syphilis from the Americas to Renaissance Europe, where it evolved into modern strains of the sexually transmitted disease.
- Astronomy
X-raying a galactic jet set
The deepest X-ray portrait ever taken of the galaxy Centaurus A highlights its jets and activity around its supermassive black hole.
- Health & Medicine
Blind Bet
Although the chances of success are far from certain, many desperate horse owners are gambling on stem cell therapy for their injured equine friends.
- Humans
Judging Science
Scientists and legal scholars argue that studies conducted with litigation in mind are not necessarily more biased than research done for other purposes.
- Humans
Letters from the January 19, 2008, issue of Science News
Evening the score When Ai, mother of the chimp Amuyu, whose mental feats you reported in “Chimp Champ: Ape aces memory test, outscores people” (SN: 12/8/07, p. 355), appeared in a television documentary a few years ago, I reproduced for myself the number-sequence test she performed and found that, after practice, I could easily outperform […]
