More Stories from the October 24, 2009 issue
- Health & Medicine
Linking obesity with leukemia relapses
Fatty tissue may provide a safe haven for cancerous cells to linger, according to a study of mice with leukemia.
- Health & Medicine
Alzheimer’s linked to lack of Zzzzs
Sleep deprivation leads to more Alzheimer’s disease plaques in the brains of genetically susceptible mice.
- Chemistry
Changing charges make for squid rainbow
Study finds how proteins self assemble in the cells of Loligo squid to reflect different wavelengths of light
- Space
Entanglement in the macroworld
A team finds “spooky action at a distance” in superconductors big enough to be seen with the naked eye.
- Astronomy
A damp moon: Water found inside and out
The moon isn’t bone-dry: Its surface and interior contain an abundance of water, new studies reveal.
- Chemistry
The element tin does what carbon will not
New bonding suggests scientists may need to rethink heavy metal chemistry.
- Paleontology
Feather-covered dinosaur fossils found
Scientists have uncovered a feather-laden, peacock-sized dinosaur that predates the oldest known bird.
- Paleontology
Fish death, mammal extinction and tiny dino footprints
Paleontologists in Bristol, England, at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology report on fish fossils in Wyoming, the loss of Australia’s megafauna and the smallest dinosaur tracks.
- Astronomy
MESSENGER captures new images of Mercury during a third passage
MESSENGER flew past Mercury for a third time on September 29. The spacecraft's mission will continue, with MESSENGER due to settle into a yearlong orbit around Mercury in March 2011.
- Humans
Partial skeleton gives ancient hominids a new look
African hominid fossils, including a partial skeleton, reveal a surprising mix of features suitable for upright walking and tree climbing 4.4 million years ago.
- Chemistry
Flowerless plants make fancy amber
A new analysis suggests that ancient seed plants made a version of the fossilized resin credited to more modern relatives
- Health & Medicine
Nobel in medicine honors discoveries of telomeres and telomerase
Three scientists share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of telomeres, which protect the ends of chromosomes, and the enzyme telomerase, which adds the structures to the ends of chromosomes.
- Tech
Nobel Prize in physics awarded for work with light
Charles K. Kao wins for discoveries enabling fiber-optic communication, and Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith win for inventing the charge-coupled device
- Chemistry
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for ribosome research
Ada Yonath, Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan will share the prize for unmasking the structure of the ribosome.
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Science Future for October 24, 2009
November 4–8 Clinicians and researchers meet in San Diego to discuss advances in psychiatric genetics. Visit www.ispg2009.org Through November 21 Watch Gearing Up, a documentary about the FIRST robotics competition. For local listings, see www.gearingupproject.org December 15 Nominations deadline for the Kavli Prizes in nanoscience, neuroscience and astrophysics. Get form at www.kavliprize.no
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Simulation and its Discontents by Sherry Turkle
Computer simulation has altered standard practices in science and engineering, but its ubiquity has drawbacks. MIT Press, 2009, 217 p., $22. Simulation and its Discontents by Sherry Turkle
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Book Review: The Medicine Cabinet of Curiosities by Nicholas Bakalar
Review by Rachel Zelkowitz.
- Humans
It’s time to reform work hours for resident physicians
A Harvard Medical School physician and sleep researcher says rules should be changed to make sure physicians-in-training get the sleep they need.
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The Science of Slumber
Special issue on sleep.
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All kinds of tired
Donkeys sleep about three out of each 24 hours. Certain reef fish spend the night moving their fins as if swimming in their sleep. Some biologists argue that all animals sleep in some form or another. But identifying sleep can get complicated. Insects have brain architecture so different from humans’, for example, that electrophysiological recordings […]
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The Why of Sleep
Brain studies may reveal the purpose of a behavior both basic and mystifying.
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Sleep Gone Awry
Researchers inch closer to causes, cures for insomnia, narcolepsy.
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Dying to Sleep
Getting too little sleep can impair body and brain and could even be deadly.
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Letters
Biofuel feedback “The biofuel future” (SN: 8/1/09, p. 24) proved very enjoyable reading. However, the future and direction of biofuels will be determined by politicians, not scientists. Scientists seem to use crazy things like facts, research and logic to determine the most efficient way to convert plants to fuel. I find it incredible that we […]
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Science Past from the issue of October 24, 1959
Sons with ulcers have dominant mothers — Men who get duodenal ulcers early in life tend to have dominant mothers and submissive fathers. In a Medical Research Council report, a research team recorded that two-thirds of a group of men who got ulcers before they were 25 had mothers who were “dominant and controlling personalities […]
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Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
By exploring each part of Albert Einstein’s famous equation, two physicists ultimately explain the theory of relativity. Da Capo Press, 2009, 249 p., $24. Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
