More Stories from the May 21, 2005 issue
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Perfect Match: Embryonic stem cells carry patients’ DNA
By priming embryonic cells with genetic material from people with problems that stem cells may one day treat, researchers have isolated 11 new lines of stem cells that exactly match the patients' own DNA.
- Health & Medicine
Baby Rescue: Cord blood saves infants with rare disease
Using umbilical cord blood, doctors can rescue babies from Krabbe's disease, a lethal enzyme deficiency that causes brain damage.
- Animals
New Mammals: Coincidence, shopping yield two species
Researchers have identified a new species of monkey in Africa and a rodent in Asia that belongs to a new family among mammals.
- Physics
Quantum Bull’s-Eye: Particle-mass prediction hits the mark
By precisely predicting the mass of a subatomic meson, physicists have demonstrated they have the computational know-how to calculate real-world details from quark basics.
- Earth
Portrait of destruction
A new simulation suggests where the most damaging ground motions would occur if a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the San Andreas fault east of Los Angeles.
- Health & Medicine
Heartburn in Bed: Soda, sleeping pills can spoil sleep
Nighttime acid reflux is a common condition that often goes hand-in-hand with sleep problems.
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Memories for Life: War sparked enduring recollections
Danes who lived through the Nazi occupation of Denmark exhibit suprisingly accurate memories for factual information and personal experiences related to momentous events from World War II.
- Humans
When Fair Means Superb: Young scientists and engineers meet in international competition
A record 1,447 high school students from 45 countries shone their brightest in Phoenix last week as they competed at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
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Brain’s support cells, always on the go
Cells that leap into action when the brain is injured are constantly searching for signs of danger during their supposed resting period.
- Astronomy
Spotty neutron stars
Astronomers have for the first time discerned hot spots on the surfaces of neutron stars.
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Vertebrates, insects share the stress
A key protein involved in animals' physiological responses to stress has carried out the same function since before any organism developed a backbone.
- Health & Medicine
Insulin may trigger type 1 diabetes
Insulin itself may precipitate the body's autoimmune attack in people with type 1 diabetes.
- Planetary Science
Saturnian moonscape
Planetary scientists have obtained their closest image yet of Epimetheus, one of Saturn's tiny moons.
- Anthropology
Coasting to Asia in the Stone Age
New genetic analyses of people from native island groups in Southeast Asia support the unconventional view that around 70,000 years ago, people living in Africa crossed the Red Sea and moved east along Asia's southern coast.
- Earth
School buses spew pollution into young lungs
Children riding on school buses inhale heavy doses of diesel fumes, and reducing these emissions could be a cost-effective means of improving their health, a new study suggests.
- Chemistry
Boxes coated with citronella repel insects
A fragrant grass extract known as citronella oil may deter insects from infesting cartons of food.
- Earth
Muddy Waters
Even though human activities such as agriculture and deforestation are sending more sediment into streams and rivers, less of that material is reaching river deltas, a trend that exacerbates problems such as subsidence and coastal erosion.
- Physics
Molecular Anatomy Revealed
Using ever-faster lasers to zap the electron clouds in atoms and molecules, scientists are making major strides toward observing and controlling the elementary quantum transformations that underlie all of chemistry.
- Humans
Letters from the May 21, 2005, issue of Science News
Rascal rabbits Evidence of animals sensing where people are looking and what they’re seeing is interesting yet hardly new (“Monkey See, Monkey Think: Grape thefts instigate debate on primate’s mind,” SN: 3/12/05, p. 163). For years, I have observed that wild rabbits will remain motionless as long as I stare in their direction. But as […]
