Vol. 176 No. #9
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More Stories from the October 24, 2009 issue

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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  3. 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

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  4. Space

    Entanglement in the macroworld

    A team finds “spooky action at a distance” in superconductors big enough to be seen with the naked eye.

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  5. 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.

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  6. Chemistry

    The element tin does what carbon will not

    New bonding suggests scientists may need to rethink heavy metal chemistry.

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  7. Paleontology

    Feather-covered dinosaur fossils found

    Scientists have uncovered a feather-laden, peacock-sized dinosaur that predates the oldest known bird.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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

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  12. 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.

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  13. 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

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  14. 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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  15. 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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  16. 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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  17. Book Review: The Medicine Cabinet of Curiosities by Nicholas Bakalar

    Review by Rachel Zelkowitz.

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  18. 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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  19. The Science of Slumber

    Special issue on sleep.

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  20. 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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  21. The Why of Sleep

    Brain studies may reveal the purpose of a behavior both basic and mystifying.

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  22. Sleep Gone Awry

    Researchers inch closer to causes, cures for insomnia, narcolepsy.

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  23. Dying to Sleep

    Getting too little sleep can impair body and brain and could even be deadly.

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  24. 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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  25. 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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  26. 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

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