More Stories from the January 4, 2003 issue
- Health & Medicine
Protein vaccine slows leukemia
A cancer vaccine fashioned from a piece of a compound called proteinase-3 shows promise against leukemia.
- Health & Medicine
Getting the iron out
A new oral drug called ICL670 works as well as an injectable treatment in relieving iron overload in the blood.
- Materials Science
Carbon nanotubes beam electrons
Researchers have taken a step toward using carbon nanotubes as electron sources in devices such as high-resolution electron microscopes.
- Astronomy
Runaway black hole
Observing a black hole and its visible companion star caroming through our galaxy, astronomers have found the best evidence to date that stellar-mass black holes are born during supernova explosions.
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Brain learns to sharpen its focus
A brain-imaging study indicates that visual learning intensifies activity in a specific part of the neural gateway for information transmitted from the eyes.
- Materials Science
Fracture Protection: Nanotubes toughen up ceramics
The addition of carbon nanotubes to a ceramic material dramatically improves its fracture resistance.
- Animals
Homing Lobsters: Fancy navigation, for an invertebrate
Spiny lobsters are the first animals without backbones to pass tests for the orienteering power called true navigation.
- Earth
Sulfur Studies: Early Earth’s air was oxygen-poor
Analyses of ancient sulfide minerals and the modern organisms that create sulfides are giving scientists a better idea of what Earth's atmosphere and oceans may have been like billions of years ago.
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Secrets of Memory All-Stars: Brain reflects superior recollection strategy
People who display exceptional recall for lists of information often employ an ancient learning strategy that engages brain areas considered crucial for spatial memory and navigation.
- Health & Medicine
Coffee Jitters: Caffeine boosts predictor of heart problems
Whether it comes from coffee or another source, caffeine causes a troubling rise in one biological indicator of heart health.
- Health & Medicine
Clear Skin: Injections counteract psoriasis in patients
Injections of an immune system protein called interleukin-4 can alleviate skin problems in people with psoriasis.
- Health & Medicine
Double cord-blood transplant helps cancer patients
Two umbilical-cord-blood transplants may work better than one for cancer patients.
- Earth
Mapping with GRACE
Global gravity maps compiled from data painstakingly gathered during the last 30 years have now been rendered obsolete by a pair of satellites that were launched just last March.
- Earth
Hawaii’s Hated Frogs
Wildlife officials in Hawaii are investigating unconventional pesticides to eradicate invasive frogs—or at least to check their advance.
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Breathtaking Science
A small region within the brainstem creates the normal breathing rhythm.
