| March 31, 2004 |
| Eastern
lowland gorilla population plummets 70 percent since 1994:
The world population of the Endangered eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla
beringei graueri), found almost exclusively in eastern Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), has plummeted by more than 70 percent in the past decade. |
| Mars
Express confirms methane in the Martian atmosphere: During
recent observations from the ESA Mars Express spacecraft in orbit around
Mars, methane was detected in its atmosphere. |
| Duke
engineers fabricating polymer 'nanobrushes' and other 'smart' molecule-sized
structures: Engineers from Duke University have described progress
building so-called 'smart nanostructures,' including billionths-of-a-meter-scale
'nanobrushes' that can selectively and reversibly sprout from surfaces in
response to changes in temperature or solvent chemistry. |
| PNNL
develops mercury-absorbing pollution solution: Scientists at
the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed
a novel material that can remove mercury and other toxic substances from
coal-burning power-plant waste water. |
| The
last stage of an arctic odyssey: The French explorer, Gilles
Elkaim, who left North Cape (Norway) in May 2000, has almost completed the
seventh and final stage of his 12,000 km solo trek along the rim of the
Arctic Ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on foot, kayak, skis, by
sled pulled by himself or by dogs... with help from ESA. |
| Ultrasound
makes waves in space and on Earth: Ultrasound techniques developed
by NASA to examine International Space Station crewmembers may soon find
another use helping treat medical emergencies on Earth. |
March 22-30, 2004 |
| Scientists
find new carbon pollution called 'tar balls':An international
team of scientists has discovered new carbon-bearing particles, which they
call 'tar balls,' in air pollution over Hungary, the Indian Ocean, and southern
Africa. |
| Rockefeller
University scientists take on controversial 'vibration theory' of smell:
Two researchers at Rockefeller University have put a controversial theory
of smell to the sniff test and have found no evidence to support it. |
| From
lava lakes on Jupiter's moon, Io, come ideas about what Earth may have looked
like as a newborn planet: Investigations into lava lakes on
the surface of Io, the intensely volcanic moon that orbits Jupiter, may
provide clues to what Earth looked like in its earliest phases, according
to researchers at the University at Buffalo and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
| 'Library
on a Slide': Whole genome microarrays for comparative genomics:
A novel application of microarray technology, where up to 30,000 whole genomes
are printed on a single slide, is described in the journal BMC Microbiology
this week. |
| Evolution's
twist: When our human ancestors started eating meat, evolution
served up a healthy bonus – the development of genes that offset high
cholesterol and chronic diseases associated with a meat-rich diet. |
| International
Space Station Status Report: Heading into the homestretch of
their 6?-month mission aboard the International Space Station, Expedition
8 Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri spent the
week conducting biomedical experiments and performing maintenance on a key
Station component. |
March 19, 2004 |
| Mineral
in Mars 'Berries' adds to water story: A major ingredient in
small mineral spheres analyzed by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity
furthers understanding of past water at Opportunity's landing site and points
to a way of determining whether the vast plains surrounding the site also
have a wet history. |
| Glacial
records depict ice age climate in synch worldwide: An answer
to the long-standing riddle of whether the Earth's ice ages occurred simultaneously
in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres is emerging from the glacial
deposits found in the high desert east of the Andes. |
| NIST
helps verify accuracy of the world's best rulers: Three of
the world's premier measurement laboratories---including the Commerce Department's
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)---have lined up the
'hash marks' from four of the world's best optical frequency rulers and
declared that they match. |
| NASA
explains 'dust bowl' drought: NASA scientists have an explanation
for one of the worst climatic events in the history of the United States,
the 'Dust Bowl' drought, which devastated the Great Plains and all but dried
up an already depressed American economy in the 1930's. |
| Mathematical
rule said to be widely and wrongly used to forecast future beach erosion:
A decades-old mathematical model is being inappropriately used in at least
26 nations to make potentially costly predictions about how shorelines will
retreat in response to rising sea levels, two coastal scientists contended
in the Friday, March 19, 2004, issue of the research journal Science. |
| New
drug may help fight some lung cancers: Chicago's Northwestern
Memorial opens research study to find out if the drug Tarceva may help fight
bronchioloalveolar cell carcinoma. |
March 18, 2004 |
| Scientists
discover why not enough choline results in fewer brain cells, poorer memory:
Five years ago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers
first reported finding that the nutrient choline played a critical role
in memory and brain function by positively affecting the brain's physical
development. |
| New
research suggests that when children ask 'what is this?' they may seek an
object's function: In the way magic eye posters simultaneously
hide and reveal the main point of the picture, new research suggests that
children might well be asking more than their simply-worded questions seem
to indicate. |
| NASA
develops system to computerize silent, 'subvocal speech': NASA
scientists have begun to computerize human, silent reading using nerve signals
in the throat that control speech. |
| Electricity
controls nanocrystal shape: Researchers at Argonne have figured
out the basics of using electrochemistry to control the architecture of
nanocrystals - small structures with dimensions in billionths of meters. |
| Smallpox
vaccine may cause harmless skin rashes: People who have never
received a smallpox vaccination may develop any of a variety of benign skin
rashes a few days after getting vaccinated for smallpox that should not
be confused with a more serious complication of the vaccine. |
| Can
a plant that acts like poison ivy cure prostate cancer?: A
shrub found in Southeast Asia can give you a rash like poison ivy; but it
may also stop prostate cancer. |
March 17, 2004 |
| Oceans'
acidity influences early carbon dioxide and temperature link estimates:
An international team of geoscientists believes that carbon dioxide, and
not changes in cosmic ray intensity, was the factor controlling ancient
global temperatures. |
| Adaptive
regulatory T cells suppress killing of persistently infected cells:
Scientists report that they have identified a cellular mechanism that prevents
the immune system from destroying chronic, incurable viral infections such
as herpes, hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). |
| New,
comprehensive tumor classification combines molecular biology and classic
pathology: Information about the genetic make-up of tumors
should, in the long term, help clinicians decide on the most effective course
of treatment for patients with cancer. |
| SOHO
snaps spectacular Sun shot: On Friday, 12 March 2004, the Sun
ejected a spectacular 'eruptive prominence' into the heliosphere. SOHO,
the ESA/NASA solar watchdog observatory, faithfully recorded the event. |
| Findings
on nerve cell proteins show promise for reducing disability:
New findings in animals suggest a potential treatment to minimize disability
after spinal cord and other nervous system injuries, say neuroscientists
from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. |
| Fish
oil supplements may contain flame retardants: Flame retardants
have been showing up in some surprising places, from human breast milk to
peregrine falcon eggs. |
March 16, 2004 |
| Most
distant object in solar system discovered: NASA-funded researchers
have discovered the most distant object orbiting Earth's sun. The object
is a mysterious planet-like body three times farther from Earth than Pluto. |
| Biggest
ever solar flare was even bigger than thought: Physicists in
New Zealand have shown that last November's record-breaking solar explosion
was much larger than previously estimated, thanks to innovative research
using the upper atmosphere as a gigantic x-ray detector. |
| A
new hypothesis about Alzheimer's disease: A group of scientists
at The Scripps Research Institute has proposed a new theory about the cause
of Alzheimer's disease, the progressive neurodegenerative disorder that
currently afflicts some 4.5 million Americans. |
| Stem
cells offer promise for hair growth: Researchers at the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have isolated stem cells responsible
for hair follicle growth. The findings, published in the April issue of
Nature Biotechnology, may serve as the foundation for new hair loss and
skin grafting treatments. |
| Satellite
finds warming 'relative' to humidity: A NASA-funded study found
some climate models might be overestimating the amount of water vapor entering
the atmosphere as the Earth warms. |
| International
Space Station Status Report: The Expedition 8 Commander Michael
Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri started the week with a three-day
weekend and finished it with a successful treadmill repair. |
March 4-15, 2004 |
| Tumbleweed
rover goes on a roll at South Pole: A balloon-shaped robot
explorer that one day could search for evidence that water existed on other
planets has survived some of the most trying conditions on planet Earth
during a 70-kilometer (40-mile), wind-driven trek across Antarctica. |
| New
human embryonic stem-cell lines to be made available to researchers:
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers at Harvard University announced
today that they have derived 17 new human embryonic stem-cell lines. |
| Ocean's
surface could have big impact on air quality: Certain ions
bouncing around on the ocean's surface and in droplets formed by waves may
play a role in increasing ozone levels in the air we breathe, new research
suggests. |
| Study
gives lowdown on high-temperature superconductivity: A new
study by theoretical physicists at the University of Toronto and the University
of California at Los Angeles (ULCA) could bring scientists one step closer
to the dream of a superconductor that functions at room temperature, rather
than the frigid temperatures more commonly found in deep space. |
| Aquatic
scientists divided on role of sea lice from salmon farms in decline of native
salmon in B.C.: Salmon farms in British Columbia may pose a
threat to wild salmon stocks, a paper published today in the Canadian Journal
of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences claims. |
| Vitamin
B-12 levels linked to bone loss in aging women: Older women
with low levels of vitamin B-12 are more likely to experience rapid bone
loss, according to new research published this month in The Journal of Clinical
Endocrinology & Metabolism. |
March 3, 2004 |
| Opportunity
rover finds strong evidence Meridiani Planum was wet: Scientists
have concluded the part of Mars that NASA's Opportunity rover is exploring
was soaking wet in the past. |
| Researchers
report bubble fusion results replicated: Physical Review E
has announced the publication of an article by a team of researchers from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Purdue University, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL), and the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) stating that
they have replicated and extended previous experimental results that indicated
the occurrence of nuclear fusion using a novel approach for plasma confinement. |
| Microwaves
could bring concealed weapons to light: Scientists are developing
a microwave-based technique that can generate high-quality images of hidden
objects. The research may lead to the use of microwaves as a safer alternative
to X-rays in airport security checks, building searches, landmine detection
and other applications. |
| Climate
change could release old carbon locked in Arctic soils, researchers say:
The Arctic Ocean receives about ten percent of Earth's river water and with
it some 25 teragrams [28 million tons] per year of dissolved organic carbon
that had been held in far northern bogs and other soils. |
| Rb
protein's role in retina development is key to understanding devastating
eye cancer: Data from unique gene function studies show Rb
is required for proliferation of retinal cells and development of the light-sensitive
rods and gives hints for improving treatment of retinoblastoma. |
| Fuel
cell reaches milestone: A five-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell
(SOFC) undergoing testing in Fairbanks has reached the 5,000-hour milestone
since its start-up eight months ago. |
March 2, 2004 |
| Enigmatic
x-ray sources may point to new class of black holes: Mysterious,
powerful X-ray sources found in nearby galaxies may represent a new class
of objects, according to data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. |
| Penn
researchers introduce a new nanotube-laced gel, create new means of aligning
nanotubes: Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have
devised a new method for aligning isolated single wall carbon nanotubes
and, in the process, have created a new kind of material with liquid crystal-like
properties, which they call nematic nanotube gels. |
| New
technique dates Saharan groundwater as million years old: The
Mediterranean Sea was a desert, millions of years ago. In contrast, the
Sahara Desert was once a lush, green landscape dotted with lakes and ponds. |
| Targeted
antiviral prophylaxis of flu case contacts could successfully contain pandemic
influenza: Emory dynamic simulation model shows targeted use
of antiviral agents might be effective intervention until adequate supplies
of vaccine become available. |
| Fat
- It isnÍt always bad for the heart: Researchers at the Indiana
University School of Medicine have discovered that cells in human fat actually
may help the body grow new blood vessels to repair both muscle and heart
tissue. |
| Toxin
combo common in fish appears capable of impairing motor skills:
Pups of female rats exposed to a combination of polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) and methylmercury (MeHg) slip and fall more often trying to maneuver
on a rotating rod than do pups from non-exposed moms, scientists say. |
March 1, 2004 |
| Cassini
captures stunning view of Saturn: Four months before its scheduled
arrival at Saturn, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft sent its best color postcard
back to Earth of the ringed world. |
| VLT
smashes the record of the farthest known galaxy: Using the
ISAAC near-infrared instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, and the magnification
effect of a gravitational lens, a team of French and Swiss astronomers has
found several faint galaxies believed to be the most remote known. |
| Tagging
faulty genes with fluorescent nanodots: A nanoscale imaging
technique that could improve the reliability of an important diagnostic
test for breast cancer, and other biomedical tests, is described by National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers in the Feb. 11
online issue of Nucleic Acids Research. |
| Ice
sheets caused massive sea level change during late Cretaceous:
Scientists using cores drilled from the New Jersey coastal plain have found
that ice sheets likely caused massive sea level change during the Late Cretaceous
Period -an interval previously thought to be ice-free. |
| Using
soils as filters to prevent 'crypto' from moving to the groundwater:
Groundwater is generally considered a safe source of drinking water because
pathogens are presumably filtered out during their transport through unsaturated
soils. Nevertheless, pathogen-contaminated groundwater has been the cause
of many disease outbreaks in the last 10 years including cryptosporidiosis
caused by the protozoan pathogen Cryptosporidium parvum. |
| Breakthrough
mine-detection turns ocean floor 'transparent': Since 1776,
when naval mines were invented, navies have rightfully feared the stealthy
and relatively simple weapons, which can disable or destroy warships and
paralyze vital shipping. |
|
