Vol. 172 No. #14
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More Stories from the October 6, 2007 issue

  1. Planetary Science

    Neptune’s balmy south pole

    Neptune's south pole is about 10°C warmer than any other place on the planet.

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  2. Physics

    Hot stuff

    A plasma-based amplifier bumps up a laser's intensity by an unprecedented 20,000 times.

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  3. Animals

    Tough-guy bluebirds need a frontier

    As western bluebirds recolonize Montana, the most aggressive males move in first, paving the way for milder-mannered dads to take over.

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  4. Earth

    Iron to blame

    Typhoons that drench Madagascar and spill iron-rich runoff into the Indian Ocean account for that region's massive but sporadic algal blooms.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Lonely white cells

    In chronically lonely people, white blood cells show abnormal gene activity that may affect health through immune responses.

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  6. Agriculture

    They fertilized with what?

    Fields fertilized with human urine yield bigger cabbages.

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  7. Dangerous DNA: Genes linked to suicidal thoughts with med use

    Two gene variations mark many patients who develop suicidal thoughts when treated with widely used antidepressants.

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  8. Archaeology

    Lake-Bottom Bounty: Some Arctic sediments didn’t erode during recent ice ages

    Sediments in a few lakes in northeastern Canada were not scoured away during recent ice ages, a surprising find that could prove a boon to climate researchers.

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  9. No Slippery Slope: Physician-aided deaths are rare among those presumed vulnerable

    Vulnerable people such as the very old or the mentally ill do not seek out physician-assisted suicide in disproportionate numbers, as critics of the practice feared they would.

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  10. Paleontology

    Just a quick bite

    Saber-toothed cats living in North America around 10,000 years ago had a much weaker bite than modern big cats.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Fueling a Flu Debate: Do vaccinations save lives among the elderly?

    Flu shots seem to prevent some deaths and limit hospitalizations for pneumonia in elderly people.

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  12. Astronomy

    Match Made in Heaven: Nearby galaxies resemble faraway type

    Several nearby galaxies seem nearly identical to some of the remotest galaxies known, offering a glimpse of the era when galaxies first formed.

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  13. Health & Medicine

    Shields Down: A cancer-fighting gene declines in old age

    Decline of an important anti-cancer gene could contribute to increased cancer risk among the elderly.

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  14. Animals

    Crowcam: Camera on bird’s tail captures bird ingenuity

    Video cameras attached to tropical crows record the birds' use of plant stems as tools to dig out food.

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  15. Astronomy

    Sputnik + 50

    The launch of Sputnik 1, 50 years ago, ushered in a scientific and technological revolution, but dreams of the human conquest of space have faded.

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  16. Plants

    Stalking the Green Meat Eaters

    Pitcher plants in a New England bog hold little ecosystems in their leaves, and also act as indicators of the bog's ecological health.

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  17. Humans

    Letters from the October 6, 2007, issue of Science News

    Cat scam? Oscar the cat possibly does identify dying patients (“Grim Reap Purr: Nursing home feline senses the end,” SN: 7/28/07, p. 53), but the story you printed presents anecdotal rather than scientific evidence and does not belong in a science magazine. Julie EnevoldsenSeattle, Wash. Correlation is not causation. Could it not be that, somehow, […]

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