More Stories from the July 17, 2010 issue
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Health & MedicineDifferent berries, similar cancer-fighting effects
Animal tests suggest that esophageal and breast cancer might make good targets for several types of berries as dietary supplements.
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Life
Forget mice, elephants intimidated by ants
Swarms of little nuisances have an outsized effect on who nibbles which trees in the African savanna.
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Health & Medicine
Vitamin B6 linked to lowered lung cancer risk
High levels of folate and the amino acid methionine also seem to help, a new study finds.
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Health & Medicine
Genetic defect tied to autoimmune diseases
Rare mutations in an enzyme lead to several different disorders.
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Humans
For sight-reading music, practice doesn’t make perfect
Individual memory differences may set upper limits on pianists’ sight-reading skill, regardless of their experience.
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Physics
Physics in free fall
Physicists drop supercold atoms down an elevator shaft to see what will happen.
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Earth
Even a newborn canyon is big in Texas
A flood carved a surprisingly large gorge that may help understand features on Earth and Mars.
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Anthropology
Lucy fossil gets jolted upright by Big Man
Scientists have unearthed a 3.6-million-year-old partial hominid skeleton that may recast the iconic species as humanlike walkers.
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Animals
Climate change may favor couch-potato elk
With drought and rising temperatures in Wyoming, migratory animals suffer while stay-at-home members of the same herd thrive
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Health & Medicine
Stopping platelets at the source
An experimental treatment may prevent harmful clotting and less need for drugs that increase bleeding risk, a study in baboons shows.
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Health & Medicine
Snakes on the brain
In a bizarre experiment, researchers delve into the neural roots of courage.
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Physics
Memories made of light
Physicists find a more efficient way to store quantum information in a crystal, a step towards super-secure quantum communications.
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Earth
Antarctic shoal breaks the ice
Instruments on a massive berg help pinpoint a previously unreported undersea ridge.
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Blind mice see again
Researchers use a bacterial gene to cure blindness in mice.
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Archaeology
Serbian site may have hosted first copper makers
Newly identified remnants of copper smelting at a 7,000-year-old Serbian site fuel debate over where and when this practice began.
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Neutrino experiments sow seeds of possible revolution
Recent results from two experiments that examine the behavior of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos hint at the possibility of a revolution in particle physics.
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Computing
Circling the square
The scientist who scanned the first digital image aims to smooth the pixel.
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Ecosystems
Bats, wolves feel the heat
News from the annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists in Laramie, Wyo., June 11-15
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Science Future for July 17, 2010
July 25 – 29 An international group of animal behavior specialists meets in Williamsburg, Va. See animalbehaviorsociety.org/absmeetings August 22 – 26 The fall meeting of the American Chemical Society is held in Boston. See www.acs.org September 1 Deadline to submit videos for Science’s “Dance Your Ph.D.” Contest. See submission guidelines at gonzolabs.org/dance
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Super Structures: The Science of Bridges, Buildings, Dams, and Other Feats of Engineering by Mark Denny
Structures stand, soar and collapse based on fundamental physics principles. SUPER STRUCTURES: THE SCIENCE OF BRIDGES, BUILDINGS, DAMS, AND OTHER FEATS OF ENGINEERING BY MARK DENNY Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2010, 266 p., $30.
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Life in the Hothouse: How a Living Planet Survives Climate Change by Melanie Lenart
A scientist explains how the planet adjusts to warming. LIFE IN THE HOTHOUSE: HOW A LIVING PLANET SURVIVES CLIMATE CHANGE BY MELANIE LENART Univ. of Arizona Press, 2010, 236 p., $22.95.
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Remembering Smell: A Memoir of Losing – and Discovering – the Primal Sense by Bonnie Blodgett
The author’s experience with anosmia leads her to explore the biology and cultural context of smell. REMEMBERING SMELL: A MEMOIR OF LOSING – AND DISCOVERING – THE PRIMAL SENSE BY BONNIE BLODGETT Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, 256 p., $24.
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Explaining Research: How to Reach Key Audiences to Advance Your Work by Dennis Meredith
Scientists can use new and traditional media to communicate findings to the public. EXPLAINING RESEARCH: HOW TO REACH KEY AUDIENCES TO ADVANCE YOUR WORK BY DENNIS MEREDITH Oxford Univ. Press, 2010, 357 p., $35.
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Book Review: Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization by Spencer Wells
At first glance, it’s hard to see the downside of being civilized. Compared with Stone Age living, an office job doesn’t look too shabby. Throw in the Internet, leisure time and dessert, and all this culture looks like a win-win. PANDORA’S SEED: THE UNFORESEEN COST OF CIVILIZATION BY SPENCER WELLS But there’s a catch, says […]
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Book Review: Not Exactly: In Praise of Vagueness by Kees van Deemter
Politicians and salesmen aren’t the only people who use — or even rely on — vague language. Never mind that much of the world can be measured in neatly defined units such as centimeters, milligrams and degrees, writes van Deemter, a computer scientist. Most people have little sense of those units, so vagueness permeates speech […]
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Nutrition society president says eat less, move more
Physician Robert Russell became president of the American Society for Nutrition earlier this year. A policy consultant to the National Institutes of Heath, Russell spent a quarter century with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., most recently as its director. He has authored hundreds of […]
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Safety in Numbers
Mathematicians don’t wear capes and tights. They are not more powerful than a locomotive and they can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound. But when it comes to protecting people from evildoers, these calculating crusaders could turn out to be super. SAFETY IN NUMBERS A new algorithm uses the location of blasts (red) from […]
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Enzymes Exposed
In some ways, cells are a lot like cities. Maps of a cell’s innards depict thoroughfares linking factories that build large molecules to post offices where those molecules are packaged up and shipped out, for example. The cell’s denizens — proteins and other molecules — shuttle around busy cellular byways like people on the street, […]
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All Patterns Great and Small
How the leopard got its spots and the zebra its stripes might not be just-so stories much longer. Biologists are beginning to pinpoint the molecular mechanisms animals use to deck themselves out with colorful swirls, stripes, spots and dots. PATTERNS GREAT AND SMALL Biologists probe the molecular mechanisms underlying animals’ array of stripes and spots. […]
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Letters
Engineering irritation The article “Engineering a cooler Earth” (SN: 6/5/10, p. 16) was incredibly irritating. The solution to global warming is not technology of the type presented, but population and pollution control. You need to start talking about that. The longer we see the problem in technical terms, the less likely we are to even […]
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Science Past from the issue of July 16, 1960
From the issue of July 16, 1960 One-eyed robot hunts objects lost in the sea — A one-eyed, swimming robot with powerful claw-like pincers is being developed for hunting and retrieving objects lost in the ocean at depths up to 2,000 feet. Solaris, as the robot is called, has propellers for motion. When its TV […]
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Exploring the Solar System with Binoculars by Stephen James O’Meara
Backyard observers can make the most of basic tools. EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM WITH BINOCULARS BY STEPHEN JAMES O’MEARA Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010, 156 p., $29.99.