More Stories from the October 13, 2007 issue
- Planetary Science
Martian rovers survive storm
Three months after being stymied by a planet-wide dust storm, NASA's twin Mars rovers are back in action.
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Exercise steps up as depression buster
Aerobic exercise, done alone or in a group, eases depression almost as well as a common antidepressant does.
- Earth
A different spin
A change in the properties of Earth's mantle at high pressure and temperature may influence seismic waves in a novel way.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes precursor may be checked by omega-3 fatty acids
Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet might fend off diabetes in children prone to the disease.
- Anthropology
Ancient DNA moves Neandertals eastward
Evidence from mitochondrial DNA indicates that Neandertals lived 2,000 kilometers farther east than previously thought.
- Earth
Arctic sea ice falls to modern low
The area of sea ice in the Arctic is at its lowest in nearly three decades of satellite monitoring.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotic improves recovery from stroke
An antibiotic called minocycline seems to limit brain damage and disability in stroke patients.
- Physics
Light does some weird math
Adding a photon to a light pulse then taking one out gives a different result from doing the same operations the other way around.
- Animals
Eat a Killer: Snake dines safely with strategic delays
An Australian snake kills dangerous frogs then waits for their defensive chemicals to degrade before eating them.
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Shifty Talk: Probing the process of word evolution
Words change more quickly over the millennia the less frequently they are used, a quantitative result that may aid in reconstructing old languages and predicting future changes.
- Astronomy
Sunstruck: Solar hurricanes rip comet’s tail
Images from a spacecraft show a magnetic hurricane from the sun severing a comet's ion tail.
- Health & Medicine
Moving up the Charts: Drug-resistant bug invades military, civilian hospitals
Acinetobacter baumannii, a common bacterium, is becoming more virulent and drug resistant in hospitals.
- Humans
Mice, Magnetism, and Reactions on Solids
The 2007 Nobel prizes in the sciences recognized research in genetics, materials science, and surface chemistry.
- Paleontology
Fossil mystery solved?
Experiments in a Florida swamp show how aquatic creatures can get trapped and preserved in amber, a form of hardened tree sap.
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Spying Vision Cells: Eye’s motion detectors are finally found
Primates, like other mammals, possess specialized retinal cells that detect motion.
- Tech
Disappearing Ink
Coming to your tattoo parlor soon: New inks that allow clients to have their designs cleanly erased if embarrassment or regret sets in.
- Earth
Invasive, Indeed
Some people may live lightly on the land, but the demands of the world's population as a whole consume nearly a quarter of Earth's total biological productivity.
- Humans
Letters from the October 13, 2007, issue of Science News
Another idea blown . . . Conservation by America is not going to decrease global warming (“Asian Forecast: Hazy, Warmer—Clouds of pollution heat lower atmosphere,” SN: 8/4/07, p. 68). We need to imitate known global-cooling events, such as the Krakatoa volcano explosion, which spread sunlight-reflecting dust into the stratosphere in 1883. A hydrogen bomb exploded […]
