More Stories from the July 26, 2003 issue
- Astronomy
Dusty times on Mars
On July 1, a dust cloud emerged from Mars' Hellas Basin, and 3 days later it had become 1,800 kilometers wide, roughly one-fourth the Red Planet’s diameter.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping breathing steady and safe
Scientists may have found a way to avoid the lowered breathing rate that comes from treatment with morphine or other opiate-based narcotics and anesthetics.
- Health & Medicine
Herbal therapy may carry cancer danger
An herbal extract that some women use to relieve symptoms of menopause increases the likelihood in mice with breast cancer that the disease will spread.
- Health & Medicine
Genes linked to colon cancer take sides
Cancers on opposite sides of the colon are genetically distinct and should be studied and treated as separate entities.
- Health & Medicine
Immune test predicts tolerance for radiation
A new blood test can foretell which cancer patients are likely to suffer serious delayed side effects from radiation therapy.
- Health & Medicine
Promising drug cuts tumor metabolism
Early safety trials of an experimental medicine suggest that it could be used for treating several serious cancers.
- Health & Medicine
Intestinal Fortitude: Treatment for colitis shows early success
Given as a drug, a protein fragment called epidermal growth factor induces remission in people with ulcerative colitis, apparently by healing intestinal lesions.
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Giving Aid, Staying Alive: Elderly helpers have longevity advantage
Over a 5-year period, older people who offered a lot of social support to their spouses, friends, relatives, and neighbors displayed a lower mortality rate than seniors who gave little or no social support.
- Earth
Long-Term Ocean Venting: Seafloor system has been active for ages
Analyses of mineral deposits in and around a unique set of hydrothermal vents beneath the Atlantic Ocean suggest that the site's tallest towers of minerals have been growing for at least 30,000 years.
- Astronomy
Sky Prospecting: Surveying the universe’s middle-aged galaxies
With a new sky survey, astronomers can tell the story of what happened during the universe’s middle years—about 7 billion years ago.
- Tech
Press ‘n’ Peel Lasers: Coaxing light beams out of cheap plastic
Researchers have devised a way to imprint lasers in plastic—an achievement that may one day lead to ultracheap lasers mass-produced like poker chips.
- Astronomy
Taking the Crab’s pulse
Simultaneous recordings of a pulsar's radio emissions and its visible beam shed new light on the seemingly chaotic variations in the intensities of those emissions.
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Beyond Clots: Platelets in blood may guide immune response
Platelets, best known for their ability to create blood clots in wounds, may also have a role in the immune system.
- Materials Science
Miniature Motor: Nanotubes central to new rotating device
Researchers have used miniature, nested cylinders, called multiwalled carbon nanotubes, to make a motor only 300 nanometers long.
- Physics
Mastering the Mixer
Almost anything can happen when a batch of grains or powders is mixed—including striking, swirling patterns and spontaneous, total separation—so researchers are playing with beads, salt, sand, and other particles in simple tumblers to find out what's going on.
- Earth
Catch Zero
It generally has taken less than a generation for modern, industrial-scale fishing, once deployed in a new plot of ocean, to exhaust the vast majority of the sea’s edible bounty and leave behind decimated ecosystems and depleted economic opportunities.
