More Stories from the November 11, 2006 issue
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Health & MedicineCurry may counter cognitive decline
A chemical found in turmeric may prevent cognitive impairment.
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Dementia warning
A long-term study of people ages 65 and older in England and Wales indicates that the prevalence of brain disorders of memory and thinking, including Alzheimer's disease, increases sharply in aging populations.
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Paleontology
Rodents tell a geologic tale
The sudden appearance of many new species of rodents in Chile about 18 million years ago may have marked the rise of the southern Andes.
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Paleontology
DNA analysis reveals extinct type of wolf
New genetic analyses of the remains of gray wolves found in Alaska indicate that a distinct subpopulation of that species disappeared at the end of the last ice age, possibly because of its dietary habits.
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Paleontology
Society sans frills
The discovery of the fossils of several young dinosaurs in one small space suggests that the members of one dinosaur group evolved complex social behaviors millions of years earlier than previously suspected.
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Paleontology
Early tetrapod likely ate on shore
The skull structure of Acanthostega, a semiaquatic creature that lived about 365 million years ago, suggests that the animal fed on shore or in the shallows, not in deep water.
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Health & Medicine
Malaria Reversal: Drug regains potency in African nation
An inexpensive drug that had lost much of its punch against malaria over the past 20 years is showing signs of regaining its strength in the African nation of Malawi.
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Earth
Not So Clean: Service industries emit greenhouse gases too
Service industries such as the retail trade are creating just as much planet-warming carbon dioxide as the manufacture and operation of motor vehicles do.
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Sick and Tired: Tracking paths to chronic fatigue
Stressful experiences and a genetic predisposition toward emotional turmoil contribute to some cases of chronic fatigue syndrome.
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Health & Medicine
See How They See: Immature cells boost vision in night-blind mice
Transplanted retinal cells can restore some vision in mice with degenerative eye disease.
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Hot, Hot, Hot: Peppers and spiders reach same pain receptor
The burn of hot peppers and the searing pain of a spider bite could have a common cause.
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Astronomy
New eye on the sun
The recently launched Hinode spacecraft captured an X-ray portrait of several-million-degree gas in the sun's outer atmosphere.
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Birds Beware: Several veterinary drugs may kill scavengers
Scavenging birds worldwide could be at risk of accidental poisoning from carcasses of livestock that farmers had dosed with certain anti-inflammatory drugs.
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Tech
The Little Chill: Tiny wind generator to cool microchip hot spots
By generating a tiny cooling wind, a microscale silicon needle armed with a powerful electric field has demonstrated its potential as a new way to cool increasingly hot microchips.
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Health & Medicine
The Antibiotic Vitamin
Because vitamin D turns on a major germ killer in the body, a deficiency in the nutrient may leave people especially vulnerable to infections.
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Ecosystems
Brave Old World
If one group of conservation biologists has its way, lions, cheetahs, elephants, and other animals that went extinct in the western United States up to 13,000 years ago might be coming home.
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Humans
Letters from the November 11, 2006, issue of Science News
The Carolinas to New Jersey “Bad-News Beauties: Poison-spined fish from Asia have invaded U.S. waters” (SN: 9/9/06, p. 168) cites evidence of a severe genetic bottleneck, suggesting that perhaps no more than three pregnant females launched the expanding western Atlantic red lionfish population. How can there be “pregnant females” in an animal with the external […]