More Stories from the May 12, 2007 issue
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Alzheimer’s marker yields blood test
Studies in mice suggest that it could be possible to screen blood for early, asymptomatic Alzheimer's disease.
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Cancer patients aided by yoga
In breast cancer patients, practicing yoga appears to reduce both depression and biochemical markers of inflammation.
- Health & Medicine
This trick boosts cancer’s spread
A compound that helps keep cells organized and stitched into tissues may play a role in the survival of cancer cells that have seeded distant tissues in the body.
- Health & Medicine
A smart pill for seniors?
A dietary supplement combo boosts older adults' performance on simple mental tests.
- Animals
Sex—perhaps a good idea after all
A family of mites may be the first animal lineage shown to have abandoned sexual reproduction and then reevolved it millions of years later.
- Humans
Lethal injection is inhumane, say researchers
Prisoners killed by lethal injection may be conscious and experience pain and burning sensations while they asphyxiate.
- Health & Medicine
Risk Factor: Throat cancer linked to virus spread by sex
Cancer of the throat and tonsils can arise from infection with a sexually transmitted virus.
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No Place Like Om: Meditation training puts oomph into attention
Intensive meditation training boosts a person's control over attention and expands a person's ability to notice rapidly presented items.
- Physics
Degrees of Quantumness: Shades of gray in particle-wave duality
Light can be made to act as if it's composed of particles, waves, or something in between.
- Astronomy
Stellar Spectacular: Brightest supernova
Astronomers have discovered the brightest stellar explosion ever observed, and it could be the first example of a rare type of supernova involving a freakishly massive star.
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Cells’ Root: Adult stem cells have a master gene
Scientists have found a master gene that allows tissue-regenerating stem cells to retain their regenerative capacity.
- Physics
Invisible Trail: Analyzing the vortices in the wake of a bat
Flying bat generate lift and thrust with their wings much differently than birds do.
- Humans
Extreme Encyclopedia: Every living thing will get its own page
A consortium of museums and laboratories has unveiled plans to create a free, Web-based Encyclopedia of Life with an entry for every living species.
- Physics
The Hunt for Antihelium
Scientists have been searching about 30 years for a single nucleus of helium made from antimatter, and although the discovery would imply that whole antimatter galaxies exist, the researchers' time could be running out.
- Animals
Egg Shell Game
Birds apparently cheat chance when it comes to laying eggs that contain sons or daughters.
- Humans
Letters from the May 12, 2007, issue of Science News
Saw right through it E. Fred Schubert and his colleagues are to be congratulated for developing an improved antireflective coating (“The New Black: A nanoscale coating reflects almost no light,” SN: 3/3/07, p. 132). But the coating would not make a lens “absorb” more light. Rather, it would help the lens “propagate” the light. Nathaniel […]
