More Stories from the May 19, 2007 issue
- Plants
Tiny pool protects flower buds
A rare structure on flowers, tiny cups that keep buds underwater until they bloom, can protect the buds from marauding moths.
- Physics
Broadband vision
Cells that act like optical fibers could explain why vertebrate retinas have sharp vision despite being mounted backwards.
- Health & Medicine
Therapeutic sorghum?
Sorghum's inflammation-fighting activity is comparable to that of a prescription arthritis medicine, animal research indicates.
- Health & Medicine
Embryos, please
Almost half of Spanish couples who were asked recently to donate excess embryos for stem cell research did so.
- Earth
Emissions tied to global warming are on the rise
The United States emitted nearly 1 percent more greenhouse gases in 2005 than it did in the year before.
- Health & Medicine
Slimming on oolong
Rats absorb less dietary fat and gain less weight when their diets contain lots of oolong tea.
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Alzheimer’s clues from thin brains
Children and teens who possess a gene variant linked to Alzheimer's disease have substantially thinner neural tissue in a key brain structure than their peers do.
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- Health & Medicine
X-Ray Kin: Radiation risk is hereditary
Susceptibility to radiation-induced tumors runs in families.
- Earth
Biological Hot Spots: Ocean eddies may not always lock away carbon
The carbon in the tissues of organisms that bloom inside some ocean eddies doesn't always sink to the ocean floor to be locked away in sediments when those organisms die.
- Animals
Low Life: Cold, polar ocean looks surprisingly rich
The first survey of life in deep waters around Antarctica has turned up hundreds of new species and a lot more variety than explorers had expected.
- Planetary Science
Water World: Extrasolar planet is loaded with hot ice
Astronomers have found a Neptune-size planet outside the solar system that's composed mainly of water solidified under high pressure.
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Fly Moves: Insects buzz about in organized abandon
Fruit flies display a penchant for spontaneous behavior that represents an evolutionary building block of voluntary choice, also known as free will, a controversial study suggests.
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Another Layer of Complexity: Short lengths of RNA could provide new form of genetic control
Researchers have discovered a new way that so-called junk DNA could help regulate gene activity.
- Chemistry
Cleaning Treasures: Safer solvents for restoring frescoes
Solvents in nanoscale droplets can be used to clean centuries-old frescoes, saving them from the unintended consequences of previous restorations.
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Our Microbes, Ourselves
Trillions of microbes live in the human gut and skin, and they may be essential to health.
- Physics
Spinning into Control
High-speed flywheels could replace batteries in hybrid vehicles and help make the electrical grid more reliable.
- Humans
Letters from the May 19, 2007, issue of Science News
Merry go round When considering a spin rate of 1,122 revolutions per second, has anyone determined the diameter of the neutron star XTE J1739-285 (“Dance of the dead,” SN: 3/17/07, p. 173)? If, for example, it were the same diameter as Earth, it would be traveling far in excess of the speed of light at […]
