Vol. 160 No. #15
Archive Issues Modal Example |

More Stories from the October 13, 2001 issue

  1. Tracking down bodies in the brain

    A new report that a specific brain region orchestrates the recognition of human bodies and body parts stirs up a scientific debate over the neural workings of perception.

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  2. Drunk drivers tow mental load

    Individuals convicted of drunk driving often have a history of not only alcohol but also illicit drug abuse and other psychiatric disorders.

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  3. Vesicles may help embryos take shape

    Chemicals that shape developing embryos may hitch rides in vesicles called argosomes.

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  4. NO says yes to breathing fast

    A form of nitric oxide tells the brain when the body needs to breathe faster.

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  5. Brain scans reveal human pheromones

    Male and female brains react differently to two putative pheromones, compounds related to the hormones testosterone and estrogen.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Detecting cancer risk with a chip

    Researchers can use microcantilevers studded with antibodies that react to prostate specific antigen, or PSA, to analyze blood samples for signs of prostate cancer.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin relative may aid stroke repair

    Dehydroascorbic acid, a precursor of vitamin C, may help stroke patients retain use of parts of their brain at risk from the blood shut-off caused by strokes.

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  8. Materials Science

    Tiny detector finds hydrogen better

    Researchers have made a miniature device that can quickly detect hydrogen leaks.

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  9. Materials Science

    Adhesive loses its stick with heat

    A new type of epoxy adhesive loses its stickiness when heated, allowing easy separation of materials that were once tightly bonded.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Sperm Protein May Lead to Male Pill

    A protein that helps sperm move their tails may be a perfect target for a male contraceptive.

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  11. Astronomy

    Distant spiral galaxy poses for Gemini

    The newly operating Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph instrument on the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, took a high-resolution composite photograph of a galaxy 30 million light-years away.

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  12. Sound learning may hinge on cue contrasts

    Training yields much more improvement in the ability to discriminate subtle differences in the loudness of sounds entering the right and left ears than in the timing of sounds arriving in each ear, a finding with implications for treating some speech and language disorders.

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  13. Animals

    Wild gerbils pollinate African desert lily

    Scientists in South Africa have found the first known examples of gerbils pollinating a flower.

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  14. Humans

    Nobel prizes mark 100th anniversary

    This year the Nobel prizes are a century old.

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  15. Astronomy

    New alcohol added to space-stuff catalog

    Researchers have discovered the molecule vinyl alcohol in space.

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  16. Paleontology

    Large shadows fell on Cretaceous landscape

    Paleontologists have unearthed the remains of what they believe could be the largest flying creature yet discovered—a 12-meter-wingspan pterosaur.

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  17. Health & Medicine

    Nobel prize: Physiology or medicine

    The 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to three researchers who pioneered work in cell division.

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  18. Physics

    Nobel prize: Physics

    Three scientists have jointly won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics for creating the first samples, 6 years ago, of a long-sought and strange state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.

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  19. Chemistry

    Nobel prize: Chemistry

    The 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognizes the development of molecules for catalyzing fundamental reactions used to make countless pharmaceuticals.

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  20. Astronomy

    A Cosmic Crisis?

    Astronomers appear to have a heavenly crisis on their hands, and it concerns material they can't even detect.

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  21. Chemistry

    Burned by Flame Retardants?

    One particular class of flame retardants—polybrominated diphenyl ethers—is accumulating at alarming rates in the environment, taints human breast milk, and has toxic effects similar to the now-banned PCBs.

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