More Stories from the July 27, 2002 issue
- Archaeology
Ancient site yields a copper whopper
Excavations in Jordan revealed the largest known Early Bronze Age metal-production facility, where workers crafted high-quality copper tools and ingots beginning around 4,700 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Hormone therapy falls out of favor
Several studies now indicate that health risks associated with hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women outweigh its benefits.
- Chemistry
Material could halt catalyst waste
New research suggests a way that carmakers might use less of expensive metal materials in automobiles' catalytic converters.
- Health & Medicine
Gene might contribute to asthma risk
Variations in a gene called ADAM33 may predispose a person to asthma.
- Paleontology
Unknown creature made birdlike tracks
Paleontologists have found a multitude of birdlike footprints left by a yet undiscovered creature in rocks more than 60 million years older than Archaeopteryx, the first bird to have left fossils of its body parts.
- Astronomy
Pluto or bust?
A new National Research Council report may revive plans to send a spacecraft to explore Pluto and its neighborhood.
- Health & Medicine
Heart damage tied to immune reaction
Researchers in Brazil have identified immune proteins that flood the heart tissues of many people with Chagas disease, suggesting a cause of this deadly complication of the parasitic tropical disease.
- Physics
Law and Disorder: Chance fluctuations can rule the nanorealm
A tug-of-war in a water droplet demonstrates that random fluctuations wield more than enough muscle to give nanoscale machines trouble.
- Paleontology
Bone Crushers: Teeth reveal changing times in the Pleistocene
Tooth-fracture incidence among dire wolves in the fossil record can indicate how much bone the carnivores crunched and, therefore, something about the ecology of their time.
- Astronomy
Moveable Feast: Milky Way dines on its neighbors
Astronomers have found new evidence that the Milky Way is a cannibal, devouring streams of stars from its nearest galactic neighbors.
- Earth
A Stinging Forecast: Model predicts chance of encountering jellyfish
Weather forecasters usually prognosticate precipitation, pollen, and poor air quality, but in some areas, they could soon provide beachgoers with the probability of confronting a jellyfish.
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Staying Alive with Attitude: Beliefs about aging sway seniors’ survival
In a small Ohio town, people aged 50 and over who reported a positive outlook on aging lived about 7½ years longer than those who held negative views about getting older.
- Chemistry
Mimicking the Best of Nature’s Binders: New technique produces artificial receptors
Scientists have devised a new way to make artificial receptors that differentiate among similar molecules.
- Health & Medicine
For Failing Hearts: Gene therapy stops decline in animals
Tests in hamsters have raised hopes for creating a gene therapy to stop the common downward spiral of chronic heart failure.
- Earth
Monsoon Warning: Data hint at wet and blustery future
Asian monsoons have been intensifying over the last 400 years, and they're slated to get worse.
- Ecosystems
Making Scents of Flowers
Science gets the tools to start sniffing around the ecology of floral scent.
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Men of Prey
Scientists have started to uncover the roots of rape and child molesting, although questions remain about whether it's possible to identify who will be a repeat sex offender or to provide effective treatment for such behavior.
