More Stories from the March 25, 2000 issue
- Chemistry
Buckyballs Can Come from Outer Space
A new analysis settles the question of whether carbon molecules found in meteorites have an extraterrestrial origin.
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Researchers enjoy bitter taste of success
Scientists have identified a large family of proteins that work as taste receptors for bitterness.
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Cloned pigs, down on the corporate farm
A biotech company announced the first cloning of pigs.
- Health & Medicine
Pig-cell grafts ease symptoms of Parkinson’s
Pig brain cells transplanted into the brains of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease help some of the patients regain mobility and the ability to do basic tasks.
- Tech
Coming soon: Knavish electromagnetic acts
Scientists have created a device with bizarre electromagnetic properties—but so far, only at microwave frequencies.
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Hungry spiders tune up web jiggliness
Octonoba spiders tune the sensitivity of their webs according to how hungry they are.
- Agriculture
Toxic bugs taint large numbers of cattle
U.S. cattle have dramatically higher rates of infection with a virulent food-poisoning bacterium than had been realized, a factor that leads to widespread carcass contamination during slaughter.
- Astronomy
Craft spies new class of gamma-ray sources
Roughly half the 120 unidentified sources of high-energy gamma-ray emissions in the Milky Way—those at midgalactic latitudes—may comprise a new class of objects and originate from a belt of massive stars that lies only a few hundred light-years from the solar system.
- Planetary Science
Unveiling Mars’ watery secret
A new gravity map of Mars has revealed a network of buried channels that billions of years ago may have been on the surface and helped carry water to fill an ancient ocean.
- Astronomy
X-ray telescope vanishes
Astro-E, a Japanese X-ray observatory, fell back to Earth and burned up just after launch on Feb. 9.
- Health & Medicine
Myopia link to night lights doubted
Two studies cast doubt on the apparent link between night lights in a baby's nursery and an increased risk of being nearsighted later in childhood.
- Health & Medicine
Coagulation factor XI boosts clot risk
People who have had a major blood clot in a vein are roughly twice as likely to harbor high concentrations of blood coagulation factor XI as people who haven't.
- Chemistry
Heat spurs growth of tiny carbon trees
Microscopic carbon forests can grow on a graphite surface without the help of catalysts.
- Chemistry
Air knocks the wind out of nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes are very sensitive to oxygen, an effect that could limit their use in open-air applications.
- Chemistry
Sensor sniffs out spoiled fish
A new electronic nose detects amine compounds produced when fish decay.
- Earth
Greenhouse Gassed
Scientists are discovering that more carbon dioxide in the air could spell disaster for plants and the animals that love to eat them.
- Tech
Looking for Mr. Goodoxide
The impending collapse of a 40-year union between the electronic wonder materials silicon and silicon dioxide threatens the advance of chip technology and propels a high-stakes search for silicon dioxide replacements.
