Vol. 162 No. #21
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More Stories from the November 23, 2002 issue

  1. Health & Medicine

    Gene may keep breast cancer at bay

    Scientists have identified a gene that seems to protect against some common breast cancers.

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  2. Mutant mice resist morphine’s appeal

    A protein on nerve cells appears to be the key to developing morphine addiction.

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  3. Scanning a brain that’s out of tune

    Scientists have scanned the brain of a man who had great difficulty playing a tune and showed that his brain doesn't react normally to music.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Slow brain repair seen in Huntington’s

    In people with Huntington's disease, the brain tries to replace dying nerve cells.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Gene change linked to poor memory

    A subtle change in a gene encoding a brain chemical may give some people better memory skills than others.

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  6. Life or Death: Immune genes determine outcome of strep infection

    Subtle variations among people's immune genes may largely account for radically different outcomes when people get a strep infection.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Leapin’ Lava! Volcanic eruption on Io breaks the record

    Pointing a ground-based telescope at Jupiter's moon Io, astronomers have recorded the most powerful volcano ever observed in the solar system.

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  8. Earth

    Bursting in Air: Satellites tally small asteroid hits

    On average, a small asteroid slams into Earth's atmosphere and explodes with the energy of 1,000 Hiroshima-size blasts once every thousand years or so, a rate that is less than one-third as high as scientists previously supposed.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Virus Stopper: Vaccine could prevent most cervical cancers

    A vaccine fashioned from a protein found on human papillomavirus-16 protects women from long-term viral infections that can lead to cervical cancer.

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  10. Three Dog Eves: Canine diaspora from East Asia to Americas

    Genetic studies have moved the origins of dog domestication from the Middle East to East Asia and suggest that the first people to venture into the Americas brought their dogs with them.

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  11. Dog Sense: Domestication gave canines innate insight into human gestures

    Dogs may have acquired an innate ability to understand human body language after they were domesticated.

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  12. Physics

    Cold War Conductor: Ultracold plutonium compound shows no resistance

    Researchers studying the crystalline properties of radioactive plutonium have discovered the first plutonium-based superconductor.

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  13. Earth

    Arsenic Agriculture? Irrigation may worsen Bangladesh’s woes

    Researchers investigating an unfolding massive epidemic of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh say they have evidence that local irrigation practices may be contributing to the problem.

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  14. Earth

    Rural living may hobble sperm

    An epidemiological study provides evidence that sperm concentrations in men residing in rural areas are significantly lower than those of men living in urban centers.

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  15. Anthropology

    Care-Worn Fossils

    A nearly toothless fossil jaw found in France has reignited scientific debate over whether the skeletal remains of physically disabled individuals show that our Stone Age ancestors provided life-saving care to the ill and infirm.

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  16. Chemistry

    Photography at a Crossroads

    Researchers are racing to understand the chemical processes used during the past 2 centuries to make photographs before digital-imaging techniques take over completely.

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