Vol. 172 No. #15
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More Stories from the October 13, 2007 issue

  1. 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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  2. Exercise steps up as depression buster

    Aerobic exercise, done alone or in a group, eases depression almost as well as a common antidepressant does.

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. Anthropology

    Ancient DNA moves Neandertals eastward

    Evidence from mitochondrial DNA indicates that Neandertals lived 2,000 kilometers farther east than previously thought.

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  6. 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.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Antibiotic improves recovery from stroke

    An antibiotic called minocycline seems to limit brain damage and disability in stroke patients.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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  13. Humans

    Mice, Magnetism, and Reactions on Solids

    The 2007 Nobel prizes in the sciences recognized research in genetics, materials science, and surface chemistry.

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  14. 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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  15. Spying Vision Cells: Eye’s motion detectors are finally found

    Primates, like other mammals, possess specialized retinal cells that detect motion.

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  16. 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.

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  17. 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.

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  18. 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 […]

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