More Stories from the May 17, 2003 issue
- Astronomy
Supernovas, gamma-ray bursts: Two of a kind?
Astronomers have uncovered direct evidence that gamma-ray bursts are linked to supernovas.
- Health & Medicine
Fecal glow could improve meat safety
Workers who process animal carcasses into meat might soon use a novel type of laser scanner to identify products that have been contaminated with feces.
- Paleontology
Ancient wood points to arctic greenhouse
Chemical analyses of wood that grew in an ancient arctic forest suggest that the air there once was about twice as humid as it is now.
- Astronomy
A black hole that goes the distance
Astronomers have measured the mass of the most distant black hole known.
- Chemistry
Drug smugglers leave cellular tracks
Imaging reveals where some experimental nanoscale capsules ferry drugs when they enter cells.
- Health & Medicine
Boosting the TB vaccine
A new vaccine for tuberculosis outperforms the current one in tests on animals.
- Materials Science
Zeolites get an organic makeover
Scientists can now incorporate organic groups into the framework of zeolites, a kind of inorganic crystal.
- Humans
Sea burial for Canada’s cod fisheries
The Canadian government has declared an end to cod fishing in nearly all of the country’s Atlantic waters.
- Anthropology
Stone Age Genetics: Ancient DNA enters humanity’s heritage
Genetic material extracted from the bones of European Stone Age Homo sapiens, sometimes called Cro-Magnons, bolsters the theory that people evolved independently of Neandertals.
- Earth
Going Down? Probe could ride to Earth’s core in a mass of molten iron
A geophysicist suggests that scientists could explore Earth's inner structure by sending a grapefruit-size probe on a week-long mission to the Earth's core inside a crust-busting mass of molten iron.
- Tech
Columbia Disaster Working Hypothesis: Wing hit by debris
The independent board investigating the breakup of the space shuttle presented its first detailed account of what might have caused the Feb. 1 disaster.
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Gypsy Secret: Children of sea see clearly underwater
Children who regularly dive to collect food have better-than-normal underwater vision because their eyes adapt to the liquid environment.
- Materials Science
Melt-Resistant Metals: Carbon coating keeps atoms in order
Shrink-wrapped in carbon, nanoscale metal chunks melt at extraordinarily high temperatures, suggesting carbon coatings as a route to higher heat resistance for materials and devices.
- Health & Medicine
Bone Builder: New drug could heal hard-to-mend fractures
A synthetic compound can heal broken bones that are so damaged they don't knit on their own, a study in rats and dogs shows.
- Chemistry
Diamond in the rough
Researchers have found a collection of previously undiscovered diamondlike compounds in oil.
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Troubling Treat: Guam mystery disease from bat entrée?
A famous unsolved medical puzzle of why a neurological disease spiked on Guam may hinge on the local tradition of serving boiled bat.
- Chemistry
Plastic Electric
Scientists are finding new ways to improve the molecular order and electrical conductivity of a commercially important conducting plastic.
- Earth
Patterns from Nowhere
Scientists are developing geophysical models that may explain the polygonal patterns that appear in and on the ground in remote regions of the Arctic, Antarctica, and possibly the surface of Mars.
