Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Ecosystems
Spill update: From booms to dispersants
Choppy seas prevailed in the northern Gulf of Mexico on May 13, with even protected waters hostingrough 4 to 5 foot waves, according to the Coast Guard. But three-plus weeks into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and ensuing spill from a BP exploratory well, measures to respond to the catastrophe continued ramping up.
- Chemistry
Chinese would turn cigarette butts into steel’s guardian
People smoke a lot of cigarettes, which leads to a lot of trash. Tom Novotny has done the math: An estimated 5.6 trillion butts each year end up littering the global environment. But Chinese researchers have a solution: recycling. Their new data indicate that an aqueous extract of stinky butts makes a great corrosion inhibitor for steel.
- Humans
Grown men swap bodies with virtual girl
People who undergo virtual-reality perspective shifts feel like they’ve switched bodies with a virtual character.
- Life
Eureka, brain makes real mental leaps
Studies of rats reveal neuron activity changes en masse during aha moments.
- Animals
Mirror, mirror on the wall, you’re the scariest fish of all
That thing in the mirror may be more upsetting than a real fish.
- Health & Medicine
Global child deaths on decline
Infectious diseases kept numbers for 2008 staggeringly high, with 8.8 million children dying before age 5, a new survey shows.
- Health & Medicine
Sickle-cell anemia tied to cognitive impairment
Patients with the hereditary condition score worse on standardized tests than people without it.
- Psychology
Bereaved relatives helped by chance to view body after sudden loss
Grieving people rarely regret having seen a dead loved one, even in cases of violent death, a British study suggests.
- Science & Society
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair begins
Young scientists converge in San Jose, Calif., where they will compete for over $4 million in scholarships and prizes.
- Space
Asteroid-bound: Scientists look for worthy rock
Scientists consider how to pick a prime asteroid for human exploration
- Health & Medicine
Taste of power goes to the head, then muscles
Just a swish of the carbohydrates in an energy drink can increase muscle performance, a study suggests.
- Earth
Atrazine paper’s challenge: Who’s responsible for accuracy?
As a new critique of a review paper on atrazine suggests, some papers may simply overtax a journal’s fact-vetting enterprise. Which would be bad for science. And bad for society.
