More Stories from the July 30, 2005 issue
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Cell death may spur aging
Genetic mutations in cells' internal powerhouses could contribute to aging by stifling tissue maintenance.
- Archaeology
Judeo-Christian ties buried in Rome
New radiocarbon dates from one of ancient Rome's underground cemeteries, or catacombs, indicates that these structures were built in the Jewish community more than a century before early Christians started to do the same.
- Astronomy
A new X-ray eye on the cosmos
To study some of the hottest regions in the universe, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has launched the coldest instrument ever flown.
- Earth
Weighty evidence on testicular cancer
New evidence supports a theory that men who were exposed to excess estrogenic hormones at an early stage of fetal development may face an elevated risk of testicular cancer.
- Physics
In search of the imperfect nanocrystal
Semiconductor nanocrystals can incorporate property-enhancing impurities into their growing structures as long as the crystals have facets onto which such atoms can strongly adhere.
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Bipolar kids harbor unique brain trait
Children and teenagers with bipolar disorder, a severe mental ailment that involves sharp mood swings, display unusually low tissue volume in a brain area involved in learning to regulate emotions.
- Physics
Why isn’t the sky violet, Daddy?
A new analysis of why the sky looks blue reveals that the reason may be the combined effects of the atmosphere and of our eyes' color-sensing apparatus.
- Astronomy
Planet potential
Observations with the Submillimeter Array on Hawaii's Mauna Kea reveal that, despite their bombardment by a stellar bully, the disks in Orion have enough material to form planets.
- Physics
Glints from Inner Space: Sensing Earth’s hidden radioactivity
Physicists have observed signatures of radioactivity deep within Earth, enabling measurement of planet-wide thorium and uranium quantities.
- Animals
Wing Ding: Bird rubs feathers for cricketlike song
Scientists say that they have found the first vertebrate to make its courtship music in the same way as a cricket does.
- Paleontology
Young and Helpless: Fossils suggest that dinosaur parents cared
Skeletal remains found in the fossilized eggs of an early dinosaur hint that adults of the species may have cared for their hatchlings.
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Boning Up: Tissue for grafts grown inside the body
Scientists have discovered a new way to stimulate one part of an animal's body to grow extra bone tissue that can be transplanted elsewhere.
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Fickle Finger’s Funny Feel: Digit illusion modifies touch perception
The brain rapidly adjusts its internal map of the body's skin surface, according to a new study of people who underwent laboratory procedures that induced illusions of finger growth or shrinkage.
- Planetary Science
Cassini eyes youthful-looking Saturnian moon
On July 14, the Cassini spacecraft came within 175 kilometers of the south polar region of Saturn's bright, tiny moon Enceladus, revealing a tortured terrain of faults, folds, and ridges.
- Health & Medicine
Echinacea Disappoints: There’s still no cure for the common cold
The folk remedy echinacea shows no benefit against the common cold.
- Earth
What’s Gotten into Everybody? Survey of bodily contaminants finds encouraging declines and new exposures
The U.S. population's exposure to lead, secondhand smoke, and certain other harmful chemicals has trended downward, but some newly measured contaminants are present in a sizable fraction of the nation's residents, according to an updated report.
- Archaeology
Seeing Past the Dirt
Increasingly, researchers are using geophysical techniques such as ground-penetrating radar and magnetometers to target their excavations.
- Humans
Pushing Drugs
Pharmaceutical marketing toward both patients and physicians appears to influence which medicines get prescribed.
- Humans
Letters from the July 30, 2005, issue of Science News
Led astray The illustration of the solar system in “Roaming Giants: Did migrating planets shape the solar system?” (SN: 5/28/05, p. 340) does not represent the current orbit of the planets. Rather, it must be a frame from the computer simulation referred to in the article. William MeadowsDripping Springs, Texas Indeed, the image reflects the […]
