More Stories from the March 1, 2003 issue
- Tech
Worms may spin silk fit for skin
Silk cocoons could become puffs of valuable human proteins if a new bioengineering method pans out.
- Chemistry
A safer antioxidant?
Scientists have developed a synthetic antioxidant that won't, at high doses, foster the tissue damage the compounds are meant to prevent.
- Materials Science
Ceramic rebounds from stressful situations
The ceramic titanium silicon carbide can fully recover after being compressed to a degree that would leave most ceramics shattered and most metals permanently deformed.
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Dolly, first cloned mammal, is dead
Dolly, the first clone of an adult mammal, has been euthanized after acquiring a severe lung infection.
- Health & Medicine
Designer RNA stalls hepatitis in mice
Using strips of synthetic RNA that interfere with normal gene action, scientists working with mice have stopped the progression of hepatitis.
- Health & Medicine
HIV in breast milk can be drug resistant
HIV-positive women who receive the drug nevirapine during pregnancy often have HIV that is resistant to the drug in their breast milk after they give birth.
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Good taste in men linked to colon risks
Men with exceptionally sensitive powers of taste may face extra health risks, such as colon cancer.
- Materials Science
Technique may yield vocal cord stand-in
A plastic material used in some biological implants could someday form a foundation for tissue that can repair or replace human vocal cords.
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Stem Cell Surprise: Blood cells form liver, nerve cells
Human blood contains stem cells that can be transformed outside the body into a variety of cell types, suggesting that a person's blood could someday provide replacement cells for that individual's damaged brain or kidney.
- Anthropology
Pieces of a Disputed Past: Fossil finds enter row over humanity’s roots
Two new fossil discoveries have fueled scientific debates about the evolutionary status of a pair of species traditionally considered to have been our direct ancestors, Homo habilis and Homo erectus.
- Earth
Sexual Hang-Up: Fish hormones change when oxygen is scarce
Oxygen deprivation—an escalating problem in freshwater ecosystems worldwide—tampers with sex hormones in carp and might underlie the decline in some fish and amphibian species.
- Materials Science
Waterproof Coats: Materials repel water with simplicity, style
Researchers have produced new types of water-repelling surfaces, including one that's colorful and another made of inexpensive plastic.
- Health & Medicine
Mixed Results: AIDS vaccine falters in whites, may help blacks
In its first large test, an AIDS vaccine has failed to shield an at-risk population from acquiring AIDS.
- Ecosystems
After Invasions: Can an ant takeover change the rules?
A rare before-and-after study of a takeover by an invasive ant species shows the interloper quickly disassembling the basic rules of the invaded community.
- Humans
Jonathan Eberhart (1942–2003)
After chronicling space science and exploration for 3 decades on behalf of Science News, Jonathan Eberhart died last week from complications of multiple sclerosis.
- Earth
Ancient Taint: Likely source of old dioxins identified
Lab experiments show that the burning of peat from coastal areas of Scotland could be responsible for the enigmatic concentrations of dioxins sometimes found in pre-20th-century soils.
- Astronomy
Mature Before Their Time
Some galaxies were in place and forming stars at a prolific rate when the universe, now 13.7 billion years old, was just an 800-million-year-old whippersnapper.
- Earth
A Safe Solution
A home-based technique for treating microbe-contaminated water with chlorine solution could save millions of lives in countries that are currently unable to provide residents with safe drinking water.
