More Stories from the March 10, 2007 issue
- Planetary Science
A crack at life
New images of ancient cracks on Mars suggest that liquid may have percolated through underground rock on the Red Planet, providing a possible habitat for primitive life.
- Earth
DNA pinpoints poached ivory tusks
Scientists tracked the origin of an illegal ivory shipment to Zambia by using an improved DNA-analysis technique to study the confiscated tusks.
- Archaeology
Spicy finds from before Columbus
Ancient Americans cultivated and ate chili peppers at least 6,100 years ago, setting the stage for the spicy condiment to spread throughout the world after Columbus' voyages to the New World.
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Body clock affects racing prowess
When it comes to athletic performance, we're all night owls, a new study suggests.
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Living Long on Less? Mouse and human cells respond to slim diets
Some animals live longer on reduced-calorie diets, and in a recent experiment people on such diets had many of the cellular changes that those long-lived animals did.
- Animals
Mafia Cowbirds: Do they muscle birds that don’t play ball?
A new test offers the best evidence yet that cowbirds retaliate against birds that resist their egg scams.
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Schizophrenia Plus and Minus: Cognitive course nudges patients into workforce
Antipsychotic drugs exert disappointingly modest effects on the quality of life of people with schizophrenia, although a new cognitive-training program shows promise as a way to get these psychiatric patients into the workforce.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s rings: A panoramic perspective
Sailing high above Saturn's equator, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took the most sweeping views of the planet's icy rings ever recorded.
- Humans
Bad Influence: TV, movies linked to adolescent smoking
White adolescents who have frequent exposure to television and R-rated movies are more likely to try smoking than are their peers with less exposure to these media.
- Earth
High and Dry: Pollution may stifle mountain precipitation
Trends seen in meteorological data gathered on a Chinese mountaintop suggest that air pollution reduces the amount of precipitation that falls in high-altitude regions.
- Math
Functional Family: Mock theta mystery solved
Mathematicians have solved a legendary Indian mathematician's final problem.
- Tech
Unlocking the Gaits: Robot tests locomotion switch
A blocky, bright-yellow robot that would look at home in a toy chest moves like a salamander, just as its inventors intended.
- Earth
Traces of Trouble
Scientists and engineers are investigating how to stem the flow of naturally-occurring and synthetic estrogens that, when released from waste water treatment plants and livestock operations, can harm aquatic life.
- Earth
Not-So-Perma Frost
The world's warming climate, as well as ecological shifts in the timing and frequency of wildfires in boreal forests, pose an increasing threat to Arctic permafrost.
- Health & Medicine
Long-Term Threat
Survivors of a childhood cancer face a sixfold risk of developing a new cancer later in life, compared with people in the general population.
- Humans
Letters from the March 10, 2007, issue of Science News
Cosmic cling At least on Earth, rock impacts result in charging of the particles (“Rocky Finding: Evidence of extrasolar asteroid belt,” SN: 1/6/07, p. 5). In space, wouldn’t this have a great effect on the motion of the rocks? Stuart HoenigTucson, Ariz. According to researchers, it’s true that the electrostatic charging of space dust and […]
