Vol. 170 No. #22
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More Stories from the November 25, 2006 issue

  1. Animals

    Tough policing deters cheating in insects

    In insect societies that have tough police, it's coercion, rather than kinship, that's preventing crime.

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  2. Jet lag might hasten death in elderly

    Mimicking jet lag in old mice brought on an early death in the animals.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Bug be gone

    An experimental device that combines a special comb with a forceful air blower kills head lice and their nits.

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  4. Physics

    Heavy finding

    Physicists have discovered never-before-seen subatomic particles related to protons and neutrons but laden with exotic, heavy subparticles called bottom quarks.

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  5. Low body heat lengthens mouse lives

    Mice genetically engineered to have slightly lower-than-normal body temperatures lived significantly longer than mice with normal body temperatures.

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  6. Tech

    Ancients made nanotech hair dye

    A hair-darkening paste invented thousands of years ago forms lead-and-sulfur nanocrystals remarkably similar to those made in today's nanotechnology labs.

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  7. Toxin Buster: New technique makes cottonseeds edible

    Scientists have engineered cotton plants that produce seeds missing a toxic compound that had previously made them inedible.

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  8. Animals

    Fighting Styles: Gene gives flies his, her conflict moves

    Switching forms of one gene can make a male fruit fly fight like a girl, and vice versa.

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  9. Astronomy

    Cosmic Pops: Nearby galaxy is hotbed of supernova formation

    Large galaxies usually have no more than three supernovas blow up in a century, but the nearby galaxy NGC 1316 has had two such explosions within the past 5 months and four in the past 26 years.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Kidney Progress: Drug slows cyst growth

    The trial drug roscovitine has been shown to reverse polycystic kidney disease in mice.

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  11. Physics

    Super Silicon: Top semiconductor turns into a superconductor

    A heavy dose of boron transforms silicon, the superhero material of electronics, into a superconductor.

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  12. Age Becomes Her: Male chimpanzees favor old females as mates

    Male chimpanzees in Uganda prefer to mate with older females, a possible sign of males' need to identify successful mothers in a promiscuous mating system.

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  13. Health & Medicine

    Ticking toward Trouble: Long-term rise in heart rate portends death

    Men whose hearts beat faster over time are likely to die earlier than those whose hearts keep an unchanging cadence year after year, according to a 20-year study.

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  14. Earth

    Balancing Act: El Niños and dust both affect coral bleaching

    Most of the annual variation in the extent of coral bleaching in the Caribbean is driven by two factors: the amount of dust and other particles suspended in the atmosphere, and the climate phenomenon known as El Niño.

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  15. Chemistry

    Chemical Pop-Up Books

    Chemists and engineers have designed two-dimensional structures that self-fold into functional, three-dimensional objects, such as miniature chemistry laboratories and drug-delivery devices.

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  16. Math

    The Mind of the Swarm

    Mathematics is helping explain how animals form flocks, swarms, and schools.

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  17. Humans

    Letters from the November 25, 2006, issue of Science News

    Wasted youth The experiments with mice infected with the 1918 influenza virus are important but not surprising (“The Bad Fight: Immune systems harmed 1918 flu patients,” SN: 9/30/06, p. 211). John Barry’s The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (2004, Viking) explains that many, perhaps most, of the victims were […]

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