Vol. 160 No. #20
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More Stories from the November 17, 2001 issue

  1. Desert beetle catches fog on its back

    The bumpy back of a desert beetle has inspired a design for collecting water from fog.

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  2. When ground squirrels cry badger

    Richardson's ground squirrels respond differently to alarm calls depending on whether the caller has a history of false alarms.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Seizures and reproductive ills linked

    Abnormal electrical signaling in the brains of women with epilepsy may alter sex hormone cycling and explain why epileptic women seem to have a higher rate of reproductive disorders than do other women.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Reducing blood pressure in the lungs

    A new drug seems to help reduce abnormally high blood pressure in the lungs, a condition that can trigger heart failure.

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  5. Chemistry

    New sensor can ID dangerous bacteria

    When newly created organic molecules, called TWTCPs, are attached to a porous silicon wafer and exposed to a certain class of bacterium, the wafer changes color.

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  6. Chemistry

    Foam gets its shot at anthrax

    A recently developed chemical cocktail that kills anthrax spores and breaks down chemical warfare agents and anthrax has received its first real- world trials in anthrax cleanups.

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  7. Earth

    Cancer risk linked to night shifts

    Women who work the graveyard shift increase their chance of developing breast cancer, perhaps because of chronic suppression of melatonin.

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  8. Earth

    EPA switchback on arsenic

    On Oct. 31, the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its March decision to rescind a proposed tougher limit on arsenic in drinking water and is now planning to implement the tougher limit of 10 parts per billion in 2006.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Cholesterol enables nerve cells to connect

    Neurons form connections with each other using cholesterol supplied by other brain cells called glia.

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  10. Earth

    Sediments Sink River’s Flow into Sea

    Deep-sea observations of occasional sediment-rich plumes of fresh water dumped into the ocean by rivers suggest that such underflows may be a prime conveyor of pesticides, organic carbon, and various nutrients to the seafloor.

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  11. Physics

    The Brazil nut effect gets more jumbled

    New and puzzling evidence for why big particles bob to the top when mixtures of granular materials are shaken-the so-called Brazil nut effect-emerges from an experiment showing that even the air between grains plays a role.

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  12. Animals

    She-male garter snakes: Some like it hot

    Male garter snakes that emerge from hibernation and attract a mob of deluded male suitors may just be looking for safety in numbers and body heat.

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  13. Paleontology

    New fossils threaten an extinction theory

    Recent discoveries of long-dead marine invertebrates call into question the occurrence of a catastrophic global extinction during the Late Devonian period, between 385 and 375 million years ago.

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  14. Archaeology

    Farmers took fast track in settling Europe

    A review of radiocarbon evidence indicates that farming groups colonized southern Europe over no more than 100 to 200 years, beginning around 7,400 years ago.

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  15. Astronomy

    SOHO craft gets the lowdown on sunspots

    Using sound waves to obtain the first clear picture of the structure beneath the surface of a sunspot, scientists say they now have an explanation for why these dark blemishes-sites of intense magnetic activity-can persist for days.

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  16. Health & Medicine

    Heart pump extends patients’ survival

    Patients who have an implanted device to help the heart pump blood have a higher survival rate than patients getting only heart medication.

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  17. Health & Medicine

    The Science of Secretin

    The discovery that a gut hormone also exists in the brain may shed light on the origins of autism.

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  18. Computing

    Sneaky Calculations

    The same communication system that brings you the Web page of your choice can be exploited to perform computations.

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