More Stories from the March 20, 2004 issue
- Planetary Science
Revisiting a forgotten planet
Engineers are readying a NASA spacecraft for a May 11 launch to Mercury, one of the least-explored planets in the solar system.
- Animals
Hornbills know which monkey calls to heed
Hornbills can tell the difference between two kinds of alarm calls given by monkeys.
- Health & Medicine
Drug for migraines helps some patients
An experimental drug that slows blood flow in the brain knocks out migraine headaches in some people.
- Anthropology
Grannies give gift of longer lives
Data from two 18th- and 19th-century farming communities supports the theory that child care assistance from grandmothers has contributed to the evolution of extended human longevity.
- Physics
Complexity by way of simplicity
Researchers have demonstrated a new way to simplify some intricate patterns whose extreme complexity has convinced theoretical physicist Stephen Wolfram that traditional science can't explain many important natural phenomena.
- Health & Medicine
Heart patients gain from steep cholesterol drop
Heart patients can lessen their risk of a heart attack and increase their odds of survival by aggressively reducing harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in their blood.
- Animals
Road rage keeps ants moving smoothly
Streams of ants manage to avoid traffic gridlock by a bit of strategic pushing and shoving.
- Health & Medicine
Ear piercings cause illness, disfigurement
Piercing the upper-ear cartilage under nonsterile conditions can leave a person vulnerable to a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, as happened in Oregon in 2000.
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Movie sparks group brain responses
People exhibit a surprising amount of brain activity in common while viewing a dramatic movie, a brain-imaging study finds.
- Astronomy
Planetoid on the Fringe: Solar system record breaker
Lurking more than 13 billion kilometers from Earth in the coldest, remotest part of the solar system, a newly discovered body is the most distant object ever found to orbit the sun and the largest denizen of the solar system discovered since Pluto.
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Brain Gain: Odd RNA converts stem cells into neurons
An unusual strand of RNA guides stem cells to transform into neurons.
- Chemistry
Mini Motor: Synthetic molecule yields nanoscale rotor
Scientists have built a tiny rotor out of a synthesized molecule that rotates in the presence of an electric field.
- Health & Medicine
Gap in the Defense: Brain cancer patients short on valuable protein
Brain tumor cells have a dearth of an obscure protein called ING4, whose sister compounds have shown anticancer effects.
- Anthropology
Prehistoric Family Split: DNA puts Neandertals on edge of human ancestry
The largest sample of ancient mitochondrial DNA extracted from Stone Age fossils to date indicates that Neandertals made, at most, a small genetic contribution to our direct prehistoric ancestors.
- Tech
Iron Power: Eking more juice from batteries
By creating an extremely thin layer of an unusually electron-hungry form of iron, chemists have made a prototype rechargeable battery electrode that may lead to improved metal hydride batteries.
- Humans
Top of the Top 40: Search tool for a cancer cure places first in national science competition
Herbert Mason Hedberg, the 2004 winner of the Intel Science Talent Search, and 39 other students have received recognition and scholarships for their innovations in science, mathematics, and engineering.
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The Bad Seed
Researchers are racing to identify tumor-forming stem cells in skin, lung, pancreatic, and many other cancers.
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Mother and Child Disunion
Data on extensive giveaways of daughters by their mothers in northern Taiwan a century ago may challenge influential theories of innate maternal sentiments.
- Humans
Letters from the March 20, 2004, issue of Science News
What’s the difference? I thought that the X and Y chromosomes determined gender in animals, but I see no mention of them in “When to Change Sex” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 40: When to Change Sex). Does this mean that on a genetic basis, males and females in these organisms are identical? Neil H. MurphyWalnut Creek, […]
