More Stories from the July 16, 2005 issue
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Bacterial tresses conduct electricity
New research suggests that several species of Geobacter bacteria use hairlike structures known as pili to move electrons.
- Health & Medicine
Cells in heart can regenerate dead tissue
Stem cells in heart tissue that has survived a heart attack can be prodded to regenerate dead portions of the injured organ.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccines against Marburg and Ebola viruses advance
Two new vaccines protect against the lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses, tests in monkeys show.
- Animals
Is eyeless sea creature fishing with a red light?
Researchers off the coast of California have captured three deep-water siphonophores, relatives of jellyfish, and observed in the lab that the creatures twitch little red lights that could be lures for fish.
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Hypnosis subdues the visual brain
Hypnotic suggestions to perceive written words as gibberish depress activity in brain areas responsible for vision, possibly reflecting a hypnosis-induced decline in attention paid to visual objects.
- Tech
Wiring up molecules
Minuscule gaps of controlled sizes in gold microwires may serve as test sites for probing properties of specks of material as small as a single molecule and as a basis for novel sensors and circuit components.
- Health & Medicine
Codes for Killers: Knowledge of microbes could lead to cures
Scientists have deciphered the DNA of the parasites responsible for African sleeping sickness, Chagas' disease, and leishmaniasis.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer Switch: Good gene is shut off in various malignancies
A gene called Reprimo is shut down in several cancers but rarely in healthy cells.
- Health & Medicine
Brain Power: Stem cells put a check on nerve disorders
Adult neural stem cells protect the brain against repeated episodes of inflammation in disorders such as multiple sclerosis by killing inflammatory immune cells.
- Earth
Power-laden winds sweep North America
There's more than enough wind power to satisfy the United States' energy requirements, a new analysis of weather data suggests.
- Earth
Arctic Foulers: Foraging seabirds carry contaminants home
When seabirds go out looking for food, they can bring home traces of pollutants that build up around their nesting colonies.
- Earth
Pollution Ups Blood Pressure: Inhaled particles linked to transient effect
In a laboratory setting, volunteers breathing pollutants generated by sources such as vehicle engines experience slight but steady increases in blood pressure.
- Physics
Realistic Time Machine? New design could forgo exotic ingredient
A novel time machine concept may avoid a problem of earlier, less-practical proposals by requiring only normal matter and the vacuum known to exist in space.
- Astronomy
Triple Play: A planet with three suns
Three suns grace the skies above a newly found, Jupiterlike extrasolar planet, posing a puzzle for how massive planets form in a closely-knit, multiple-star system.
- Physics
Dr. Feynman’s Doodles
A new U.S. postage stamp honoring physicist and folk hero Richard P. Feynman sports curious squiggles, invented by Feynman, that were rejected at first but soon became a major tool of physicists everywhere for picturing the behaviors and calculating the properties of matter and energy.
- Materials Science
Bright Future
Energy-efficient, semiconductor-based chips called light-emitting diodes will begin to illuminate homes and offices within the next decade, displacing power-hungry incandescent and fluorescent lighting.
- Earth
Letters from the July 16, 2005, issue of Science News
Muddy, clarified “Muddy Waters” (SN: 5/21/05, p. 328), on the deleterious effect of dams on coastal systems, contains a major conceptual error. It states that “another important cause of the ground sinking is the waning of sediment deposition by the Mississippi River.” But over the past 100 million years, the northern Gulf Coast region has […]
