Vol. 166 No. #18
Archive Issues Modal Example |

More Stories from the October 30, 2004 issue

  1. Health & Medicine

    Childhood trauma raises risk of heart disease

    A childhood filled with psychological or physical tribulations contributes to one's risk of developing heart disease as an adult.

    By
  2. Astronomy

    Renegade stars in sun’s neighborhood

    Some stars in the neighborhood of the sun may be renegades from the center of our galaxy.

    By
  3. Earth

    Dioxin-type carcinogens pose additive risks

    Pollutants known as dioxins, furans, and certain chemically related polychlorinated biphenyls have additive cancer-causing effects when mixed together, as has been assumed in calculating the chemicals' health risks.

    By
  4. Tech

    Tracing the origin of Genesis’ crash

    The upside-down installation of four switches intended to signal the Genesis spacecraft to open its parachutes is the likely cause of the craft's crash in the Utah desert on Sept. 8.

    By
  5. Health & Medicine

    COX-2 inhibitor pulled off market

    Merck's recall of rofecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor drug for arthritis, raises the question of whether similar drugs might also increase the risk of heart attack.

    By
  6. Animals

    When bluebirds fight, bet on the bluest

    The male bluebirds with the bluest (and most ultraviolet) plumage turned out to be the toughest competitors in a study of who won the rights to prime nest boxes.

    By
  7. Tech

    Wee wires that can crawl

    Self-propelled strands of a muscle protein coated with gold offer a way to arrange and control the nanoworld.

    By
  8. Animals

    Familiar face calms stressed-out sheep

    The sight of the face of a familiar sheep seems to reduce stress in troubled sheep.

    By
  9. Anthropology

    Evolutionary Shrinkage: Stone Age Homo find offers small surprise

    Scientists announced the discovery of the partial skeleton of a small-bodied Homo species that inhabited an eastern Indonesian island from at least 38,000 years ago until about 18,000 years ago.

    By
  10. Tech

    Laser Landmark: Silicon device spans technology gap

    By coaxing a silicon microstructure into acting as a laser, engineers have achieved a long-sought and important step toward microchips capable of simultaneously manipulating electrons and light.

    By
  11. Animals

    Dangerous Times: Guppies don’t follow rules for old age

    A study of wild guppies suggests that life in a dangerous place does not automatically push evolution toward rapid aging as previously thought.

    By
  12. Health & Medicine

    Double Credit: Iron-fortified salt cuts anemia

    A form of table salt manufactured to contain iron can fight off anemia among children living in rural North Africa and could expand the role of salt fortification around the world.

    By
  13. Health & Medicine

    Affairs of the Heartburn: Drugs for stomach acid may hike pneumonia risk

    Acid-blocking drugs seem to boost a person's chances of getting pneumonia.

    By
  14. Chemistry

    Fatty acid makes busy micropotter

    A fatty acid commonly found in soap and vegetable oil assembles into microscopic, potterylike structures when it crystallizes.

    By
  15. Earth

    Fighting Water with Water: To lift the city, pump the sea beneath Venice

    With technology commonly used in oil fields, engineers could inject large volumes of seawater into sandy strata deep beneath Venice, Italy, to reverse the ground subsidence that plagues the city.

    By
  16. Health & Medicine

    Prescription for Trouble: Antidepressants might rewire young brains

    Young mice exposed to a common type of antidepressant, known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), showed symptoms of anxiety and depression in adulthood.

    By
  17. Gene Doping

    Inserting genes for extra strength or speed could give athletes an unbeatable, and perhaps undetectable, advantage in competitive sports.

    By
  18. Chemistry

    Solar Hydrogen

    With the vision of a hydrogen economy looming ever larger in people's minds, scientists have picked up the pace of their pursuit of materials that use solar energy to split water and make clean-burning hydrogen fuel.

    By
  19. Humans

    Letters from the October 30, 2004, issue of Science News

    It isn’t academic Speaking as someone with a Ph.D. in math who has spent most of his 30-year professional life unemployed and who can probably look forward to spending the rest of it unemployable, I was disappointed that “Where Ph.D.s pay off” in (SN: 8/7/04, p. 94: Where Ph.D.s pay off) made no apparent effort […]

    By