Smoking before or after pregnancy may harm

Biohazard: Smoking before or after pregnancy may harm daughters' fertility
Smoking before pregnancy or during breastfeeding might impair the female offspring's fertility, a study in mice shows.

With the discovery of a fifth planet circling the nearby star 55 Cancri, astronomers have found the most abundant--and heaviest--planetary system beyond the sun's.

Superbug: What makes one bacterium so deadly
A molecule that pierces immune cells gives some aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria their fearsome virulence.

Shadow World: How many dimensions space has could all be a matter of perspective
Physicists have found new evidence for a 10-year-old conjecture that bridges the gap between the many-dimensional space of string theory and more familiar theorizing.

Crime Growth: Early mental ills fuel young-adult offending
Mental disorders in children can lead to criminal behavior in adulthood.

Bone Builder: Drug may offer steroid users new protection against fractures
A bone-growth medication called teriparatide outperforms the standard bone-preserving drug alendronate in people with steroid-induced osteoporosis.

Insects laughing at Bt toxin? Try this
A new countermeasure restores the toxicity of Bt pesticides to insects that have evolved resistance.

Too little sleep may fatten kids
Lack of sleep may promote childhood obesity.

Drinks lower glucose to protect heart

Moderate consumption of beer, wine, or gin lowers blood glucose, perhaps helping to stave off type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The illicit drug methamphetamine alters immune proteins unleashed in the body, possibly explaining why some longtime methamphetamine abusers suffer heart problems.

A computer in every cell
Artificial genes inserted into cells make RNA molecules that can perform logical computations.

Nerves are key to longevity effect
The life-extending effect that some animals get from calorie-restricted diets may depend on signals from the brain.

A sweet way to replace petroleum?
Thanks to a new chemical process, many products now manufactured from petroleum could one day be made from sugar molecules.

Music to alien ears
Saturn's moon Titan may be the best rock concert venue in the solar system, according to computer simulations of sound propagation on other worlds.

Nanospheres leave cancer no place to hide

Gold-coated glass "nanoshells" can reveal the location of tumours and then destroy them minutes later in a burst of heat, according to new research. When injected into the bloodstream, the particles accumulate at the site of a tumour. The tumour sites can then be identified using low-power infrared light, and destroyed by applying a high-power infrared laser

If the universe has extra-spatial dimensions in parallel to the 3D we are used to, they might be seen in areas of extreme gravity around dense stars

A device that can hold hundreds of atoms in a 3D array, and image each one individually, has been developed by scientists in the US. The machine is an important stepping stone towards the development of a quantum computer

Beyond Ethanol: Synthetic fuel offers promising alternative
A faster, simpler manufacturing technique could make a synthetic biofuel into an even stronger competitor to ethanol.

Winged dragon
A quarry on the Virginia-North Carolina border has yielded fossils of an unusual gliding reptile that lived in the region about 220 million years ago.

Diabetes drug might hike heart risk
People who take rosiglitazone, a popular diabetes drug marketed as Avandia, may face an increased risk of heart attack.

Viagra may lessen effects of jet lag

Viagra helps laboratory rodents recovery from circadian disruptions similar to jet lag.

Fish Free Fall: Hormone leads to population decline
Trace amounts of the synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills can cause a fish population to collapse.

Babies see their way to language insights
Babies 4 to 6 months old can distinguish between two languages solely by watching a speaker's face, without hearing sound.

Migraines in men linked to heart attack risk
Men who experience migraine headaches are somewhat more likely to have heart attacks than are other men.

Unintended consequences of cancer therapies
Radiation and chemotherapy can destroy a tumor, but they may also indirectly promote metastasis, the spread of cancerous cells to other organs.

The new drugs are pH sensitive and only affect damaged tissue, resulting in fewer side effects.

Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did a comet blow up over eastern Canada?
An extraterrestrial object apparently exploded above Canada about 12,900 years ago, sparking devastating wildfires and triggering a millennium-long cold spell.

Packaging Peril: Chemicals in food wrapping turn toxic
Chemicals that prevent grease from seeping through food packaging can transform into a suspected carcinogen.

Tea--Milking It
Adding milk doesn't diminish tea's antioxidant bounty, research finds.

Carbon's mysterious magnetism
An X-ray experiment has yielded the most conclusive evidence to date that carbon can be magnetic.

Magnets may make the brain grow stronger

Stimulating the brain with a magnetic coil appears to promote growth of new neurons - possibly leading to treatments for brain diseases

Bugs struck down by 'super-oxidised' water
A form of water packed with oxychlorine ions can kill bacteria and viruses, but is kinder on the human skin than bleach, say its developers

'Probiotics' could save frogs from extinction
Micro-organisms that inhabit the skin of amphibians have fungus-resistant properties that could help fight a devastating disease that is wiping out many species

A hammerhead shark born to a mother that had not come into contact with a male, is now proved to be the result of asexual reproduction

High-temperature superconducting power lines are set to boost the Big Apple's power supply - if an initial test line proves successful

Strange alien world made of 'hot ice'

The smallest planet known to pass in front of its host star has been found - it may be made of exotic hot ice and shrouded in steam
hot ice - hot (but solid) water

New gene therapy targets cholesterol
A form of RNA interference - called microRNA - has been used successfully to regulate gene expression in mice for the first time

Cellphones could warn of imminent lightning strike
Multiple receivers in cellphones can be tuned to detect pending lightning bolts using radio frequencies

Grinding ice generates Saturn moon's icy plumes
Saturn's gravity causes ice on its moon Enceladus to grind together, generating the icy plumes observed by Cassini, new calculations suggest

Childhood Vitamin D--A New Benefit?
Vitamin D may prevent symptoms of asthma in toddlers.

X-Ray Kin: Radiation risk is hereditary
Susceptibility to radiation-induced tumors runs in families.

Spinning into Control: High-tech reincarnations of an ancient way of storing energy
High-speed flywheels could replace batteries in hybrid vehicles and help make the electrical grid more reliable.

Slimming on oolong
Rats absorb less dietary fat and gain less weight when their diets contain lots of oolong tea

Audio collection to online resource Google Earth

A collection of enriched audio clips from all over the globe that took 40 years to collate will soon be linked to online resource Google Earth

Proof of collisions between different "pocket" universes could be detectable in the microwave background, according to a US scientist

People who have had more than five oral-sex partners appear 250% more likely to have throat cancer than those who do not engage in this activity

'Hoodie' increases a fiddler crab's chance of sex
Hopeful male fiddler crabs in areas frequented by predatory birds can increase their chances of mating if they build a shelter over their borrow entrance

Bizarre planet is hottest yet found
One of the most exotic exoplanets known just got a little weirder - new data shows it is the hottest and blackest ever discovered

abusing prescription painkillers
Vicodin (generic name hydrocodone) is a prescription painkiller that may also provide a euphoric high in many of the people who take it. This opiate-derived drug works by blocking pain signals in the brain that come from the nerves of the spinal cord. This action also happens to promote a sense of happiness and well being, leading to the addictive euphoria. Although these sensations may be sweet in the short term, side effects of long-term use can cause psychological dependence and physical damage, including hallucinations, severe confusion, constipation, dizziness, lightheadedness and even death. If Vicodin is used for longer than it is prescribed, it may lead to withdrawal symptoms when the person stops using it. Withdrawal symptoms, such as restlessness, muscle or bone pain, or insomnia, range from moderate to severe, and discontinued use of Vicodin or other similar drugs should be done under the supervision of a medical professional.

Degrees of Quantumness: Shades of gray in particle-wave duality
Light can be made to act as if it's composed of particles, waves, or something in between.

The Hunt for Antihelium: Finding a single heavy antimatter nucleus could revolutionize cosmology
Scientists have been searching about 30 years for a single nucleus of helium made from antimatter, and although the discovery would imply that whole antimatter galaxies exist, the researchers' time could be running out.

Jupiter moon spews volcanic plumes

Towering volcanic plumes are among the dazzling images taken during the New Horizons spacecraft's recent swing past Jupiter

Males of some duck and geese species often sexually force themselves on females, who have evolved defensive vaginal features as a result

The objects scientists think are black holes could instead be wormholes leading to exotic cosmic locales, a new study argues

Liquid Center: Mercury has a molten core, radar reveals
Mercury is hot stuff: It's got a core that's at least partially molten, a new radar study of the planet's spin reveals.

Less Is More (Bone): Yearly osteoporosis drug reduces fractures
Older women with osteoporosis who received yearly infusions of a drug that prevents bone loss had far fewer fractures than did peers who didn't get the drug.

More Than Bit Players: Snippets of RNA might sway pancreatic cancer
Small pieces of genetic material called microRNA might provide a preview of pancreatic cancer's aggressiveness and offer targets for combating the usually deadly disease.

Peru's Sunny View: Solar observatory dates back 2,300 years
Researchers have found the oldest solar observatory in the Americas, a group of 13 towers first used around 300 B.C. to mark the positions of sunrises and sunsets from summer to winter solstice.

Extrasolar planet with the potential for life

In the Zone: Extrasolar planet with the potential for life
Astronomers this week announced that they had found Earth's closest known analog outside the solar system, an object with an average temperature that may allow water to be liquid on its surface.

Inherited Burden? Early menarche in moms tied to obesity in kids
Women who reach puberty at an early age are more likely to have children who are overweight.

Pregnancy and Pollution: Women living in areas with poor air quality have babies with lower birthweights
Pregnant women exposed even to moderate amounts of several common air pollutants tend to have babies with low birthweights.

A hexagon on the ringed planet
NASA scientists are puzzled by a giant, hexagon-shaped feature that covers Saturn's entire north pole.

Uncommon cancer gets start in muscle cells
Synovial sarcoma, a cancer thought to arise from joint tissue, actually forms in nascent muscle cells, a mouse study shows.

Babies with eczema that were breast fed hours after the mothers were laughing had milder allergy symptoms

plants on alien worlds

For plants on alien worlds, it isn't easy being green
Depending on the planet's atmosphere and its host star's light, the foliage sprouting up on other Earths may look yellow, orange - or even black

'Axis of evil' a cause for cosmic concern
Evidence is growing that an apparent pattern imprinted on the radiation left behind after the big bang may be real, posing a threat to standard cosmology

First sign of water found on an alien world
Hubble turns up what may be water in the atmosphere of a well-studied exoplanet, just two months after infrared observations failed to find any hint of it

'Rebuilt' immune system shakes off diabetes
Rebuilding patients' immune systems from scratch with their own bone marrow stem cells may free type 1 diabetics of the chronic condition

Bug versus Bug: Insect virus makes a viable flu vaccine
A new influenza vaccine churned out by caterpillar cells infected with a genetically engineered virus effectively prevents the flu.

Quantum Capture: Photosynthesis tries many paths at once
The wavelike behavior of energy in chlorophyll might explain how plants are so efficient at using solar energy.

Cavernous findings from Mars
Images taken by a Mars-orbiting spacecraft show what appear to be caves on the Red Planet.

Even outdoors, generators pose risks
Portable electricity generators are frequently the culprit in domestic carbon monoxide poisonings--even when the devices sit outside the home.

Color-tunable sunglasses
Engineers have developed sunglasses that can change from dark, filtering hues to clear--and back--at the flip of a switch.

new reading

Ug99 is a virulent strain of black stem rust fungus that attacks wheat plants - a crop that feeds more people than any other food source on Earth. Since the Green Revolution of the 1960s, farmers have been successfully growing disease-resistant wheat varieties. But Ug99 has evolved. There are now precious few wheat crops anywhere that are resistant to it. The blight has already crossed from Africa into Asia and there are fears it will spread further into regions where a billion people depend on wheat for their survival.

A warming climate has improved the birds' Siberian nesting site, leading to plagues of the birds invading the Washington state town of Stanwood.

Pollution far below the level seen as dangerous for aquatic life has nevertheless dramatically altered animal behaviour in North American lakes.

Mushrooms in England are starting to pop up earlier and staying around later than they used to, according to 55 years of amateur naturalists' records.

Drug-Resistant Flu Detected: Japanese strains appear transmissibleFor the first time, researchers report drug resistance in type B influenza virus and say the drug-resistant strain may jump from person to person.

No Escape: There's global warming on Mars tooThe overall darkening of Mars' surface in recent decades has significantly raised the Red Planet's temperature, a possible cause for the substantial, recent shrinkage of the planet's southern ice cap.

Kill-save gene combo might fight malariaA technique that might someday enlist mosquitoes in the fight against malaria has passed an early test.

Freeze-thaw cycles: How not to mix soilThe repeated cycles of ground freezing and thawing that occur in many places don't do a surprising poor job of churning the soil.

Bags under the eyes

Some people seem to always look like they're refreshed and ready to seize the day; others have bags under their eyes that could dwarf some of the luggage that comes out of JFK airport. These dark circles or bags are formed by fat and fluid that settles into the area, and there are a number of reasons they appear, including genetics, aging, fluid retention, and allergies. Moreover, they can appear darker under the eyes because the skin under the eyes is especially thin; this thin skin sits on top of areas that are dark red or purple in color; and the area is more likely to become puffy, casting shadows that make the bags look even more pronounced.

The way the genetics play out, some people are born into families where the skin color under the eyes is likely to be darker or bags are more likely to appear earlier in life. As people grow older, their skin tends to get thinner and lose some elasticity, making their bags look bigger and darker. The fun doesn't stop there: fluid retention from lack of sleep, monthly hormonal changes, or eating too much salt can make matters worse.

Another possible contributing factor is that when you're tired, your face muscles are tired, too, making the skin around your eyes less toned and droopier.

If hearing this is making you lose even more sleep, the good news is that there are ways to help reduce the swelling and get rid of your excess baggage:

• Reduce the amount of salt you consume.
• Apply cool compresses to your eyes for a few minutes while sitting upright.
• Sleep with your head elevated.
• Cut back on or eliminate dehydrating drinks from your diet, including tea, coffee, and alcohol.
• Drink lots of water.

For the most part, puffiness under the eyes probably isn't anything to worry about. If your droopy under-eyes are accompanied by itchiness, redness, and teary eyes, you might want to get checked out for allergies. In some cases, swelling in general may be a symptom of a more serious problem. If you notice fluid retention in other parts of your body, or if it becomes severe or persistent, see a health care provider as soon as possible. S/he can check to see if you have an underlying medical condition.

More.
Bloated and sick around period
Vegetarian wants to bulk up with protein foods
My parents don't believe I'm bi!
First gynecological exam

29 March 2007 Science News

Exclusive environment blog: Fred's Footprint
Fred Pearce is travelling the world investigating his own environmental footprint. This stop: How fair is fair-trade coffee?

Like Goldilocks, mice know a bed that's 'just right'
A set of cells in a mouse's brain start firing when they see a perfectly-sized nesting container - hinting that mice may understand abstract concepts

Asthma soothed by airway radio-blasts
A probe that heats the muscle lining of airways using radiofrequency energy seems to provide some protection against asthma attacks

Shoulder-worn camera acts as a third eye
The system automatically tracks head movements and recognises hand gestures - it could eventually be used to record crime scenes

See yourself as others see you online
What your online profile says about you may not be what you expect

'Inspector Gadget' to star in space tether test
A thermos-flask-sized satellite called Gadget will ride up and down a 1-kilometre-long tether in space, to check its resistance to micrometeoroids

Bizarre hexagon circles Saturn's north pole
A six-sided structure as wide as two Earths lies above the Ringed Planet's north pole and has remained curiously stable for more than 20 years

Equinox challenge to Newton's law
An exquisitely sensitive experiment that can only be performed during equinoxes could test some of the theories that offer an alternative to dark matter

Scientists steal turns of phrase from other papers
Eloquent language has never be the strong point of academic papers, but minor plagiarism is a dubious solution

WHO hails circumcision as vital in HIV fight
Circumcised men are 60% less likely to contract HIV - evidence that the World Health Organization calls "compelling"

Arms are dead giveaway for risky drivers
Monitoring a driver's gaze - as some luxury cars are now designed to do - may not be the best way to ensure a driver is paying attention

Lack of sea ice devastates seal populations
Conservationists warn that an exceptional die-off of seal pups in Canada, combined with the country's annual seal hunts, could spell disaster

Coastal living - a growing global threat
One person in 10 worldwide, including one in eight city-dwellers, lives in an "at-risk zone" for flooding and storms, exacerbated by climate change

Mothers' beefy diet linked to sons' low sperm count
Men born to women who eat more than a serving of beef each day while pregnant might have reduced fertility, a new study warns

Chernobyl-based birds avoid radioactive nests
Some species around the exploded nuclear reactor choose nest sites with lower levels of background radiation, but how they discern is a mystery

Soft splint instantly heat-welds to hold broken limbs
Injured skiers and mountaineers could protect injuries using a flexible plastic bandage that rapidly hardens to form a solid cast

Invention: Brain decoder
This week's patent applications include a way of decoding brain signals, light-controlled skin grafts, and a drug paste that solidifies inside the body

March 24, 2007 Science News

[Earth Science]
Young and Restless: Ancient Earth shows moving crust
The oldest rocks in the world show that Earth's shifting crust began its tectonic movements almost 4 billion years ago.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob1.asp

[Physics]
Closer to Vanishing: Bending light as a step toward invisibility cloaks
Invisibility cloaks may be a long shot, but new optical tricks could help in the design of future computers.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob3.asp

[Astronomy]
Ticket to Ride? Astrophysicists mull a return to the moon
Astronomers are investigating how they might jump on NASA's lunar bandwagon, using the moon or its environs to study distant stars and galaxies.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/bob9.asp

[MATHTREK BLOG]
Computing Photographic Forgeries
Scientists are using mathematical tools to sniff out faked photographs.
http://blog.sciencenews.org/mathtrek/

[FOOD FOR THOUGHT BLOG]
Planting the Seeds for Folate Enrichment
Florida scientists have engineered tomatoes with 20 times the ordinary amount of folate, making them the most concentrated source of this important vitamin ever measured.
http://blog.sciencenews.org/food/

[TIMELINE]
From the March 20, 1937, issue
The real Groundhog Day, microfilm book storage, and turning farm waste into chemical products.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/timeline.asp

[Chemistry]
Waistline Worry: Common chemicals might boost obesity
A family of chemicals implicated in testosterone declines may also be contributing to recent spikes in obesity and diabetes.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob2.asp

[Biomedicine]
Risky Flames: Firefighter coronaries spike during blazes
A disproportionate number of heart disease deaths among firefighters occur during blazes.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob4.asp

[Biomedicine]
Balancing Act: Excess steroids during pregnancy may pose risks for offspring
Heavy amounts of steroids taken during pregnancy can have long-term deleterious effects on offspring, a study of monkeys shows.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob5.asp

[Planetary Science]
Solar-staring spacecraft shows its flare
A new image of the sun's chromosphere, a layer sandwiched between the sun's visible surface and its outer atmosphere, shows a surprisingly complex structure of filaments of roiling gas that promises to shed new light on why the sun erupts.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob6.asp

[Biology]
Not So Wimpy: Antimalarial mosquito has an edge in tests
For the first time, mosquitoes engineered to resist malaria have shed their underbug image and outperformed regular mosquitoes in a lab test.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob7.asp

[Behavior]
Feeling Right from Wrong: Brain's social emotions steer moral judgments
A new study of people who suffered damage to a brain area involved in social sentiments supports the notion that emotional, intuitive reactions typically guide decisions about moral dilemmas.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/fob8.asp

[Anthropology]
Mysterious Migrations: Our prehistoric ancestors journeyed out of Africa on contested roads
New studies report that modern humans from Africa launched cultural advances in Europe at least 36,000 years ago and reached what's now western Russia more than 40,000 years ago, although those conclusions generate much scientific controversy.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/bob10.asp

[Planetary Science]
Radar reveals signs of seas on Titan
The northernmost reaches of Saturn's moon Titan appear to be covered with hydrocarbon lakes or seas that are at least 10 times as large as those predicted by earlier studies.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note11.asp

[Behavior]
Mental fallout among recent-war veterans
Almost one in three veterans of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq receiving medical care at Veterans Affairs facilities displays mental disorders or less-severe problems that still require mental-health treatment.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note12.asp

[Biology]
Novel DNA changes linked to autism
Genetic alterations that occur in children without being inherited from the parents contribute to certain cases of autism and related developmental disorders.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note13.asp

[Biomedicine]
Preemies respond to immunizations
Babies born prematurely rev up an immune response to two routine childhood vaccines as well as babies who are born full-term.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note14.asp

[Paleontology]
Catching evolution in the act
Paleontologists have unearthed fossils that provide direct evidence of something scientists had long suspected: The tiny bones in the middle ears of modern-day mammals evolved from bones located at the rear of their reptilian ancestors' jaws.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note15.asp

[Biomedicine]
Hepatitis B found in wrestlers' sweat
Traces of hepatitis B have turned up in the perspiration of wrestlers, suggesting that the virus could spread to their opponents and teammates.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note16.asp

[Earth Science]
World's climate map gets an update
A century-old system of categorizing the world's climates has been updated to include modern weather data, thereby providing researchers with a tool to better verify results of their computer simulations.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note17.asp

[Biology]
Gene predicts sleepy performance
Variants in a circadian-rhythm gene predict how well people perform mental tasks when sleep deprived.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/note18.asp

[Science & Society]
Letters from the March 24, 2007, issue of Science News
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070324/letter19.asp

22 March 2007 Science News

If you're happy, the robot knows it
Robots are gaining the ability to engage us emotionally, giving them a much broader range of uses

Impaired emotional processing affects moral judgements
Brain damage affecting the emotion centre of the brain skews moral choices towards the greater good, unfettered by concerns over individual harm

The more bites the better
Exposure to the saliva of biting insects could protect people against infection by insect-borne parasites

Movies map global greenhouse gas movement
Unique satellite data reveals how concentrations of key human-made greenhouse gases - CO₂ and methane - change with the seasons

Where have all the bees gone?
It is a vanishing on the scale of entire cities, and it is happening all across the US - but there is no shortage of culprits

Dazzling new images reveal the 'impossible' on the Sun
The Hinode telescope observes the restless frothing of the Sun's surface in astonishing detail - but astronomers don't understand its findings

Sea sponge leads way to cheaper solar cells
Marine sponges can harvest silicon from seawater and use it to build spiky filaments all over their body, inspiring a new manufacturing process

Darwin's take on Gray's anatomy
A letter written to Darwin by Asa Gray in 1871 is one of hundreds of previously unpublished letters poised to become available online

Mathematicians finally map 248-dimension structure
A fiendishly complicated mathematical challenge, called E8, is conquered - the result might find application in unification theories in physics

Invention: Auto-snug clothing
This week's patent applications include self-adjusting clothing, a clever way to get more from X-ray images, and hush-hush aircraft wings

Saturn gets star treatment in trio of Hubble movies
Hubble Space Telescope images have been seamlessly woven together into three movies showcasing the majestic planet and its icy moons

Doubt cast on definition of PTSD
Most of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are equally common among depression patients with no history of traumatic experiences

Budget private rocket finally reaches space
The Falcon 1 rocket blasts off and, though it fails to reach the proper orbit, the launch signifies growing competitiveness in the launch business

Dinosaur digger found in its own burrow
The family of fossils provide the first solid evidence that some dinosaurs lived in burrows and that adults cared for juveniles long after they had hatched

US fudging of climate science - detail revealed
An oversight committee again accuses the Bush administration of interfering with federal climate science and downplaying global warming

Eavesdropping nuthatches act on chickadee warnings
Red-breasted nuthatches extract information about predator threats from the seemingly indistinguishable alarm calls of other species

Ancient lizard extended its rib bones to glide
A fossil from north-eastern China reveals that ancient lizards glided by using a wing-like membrane supported by their elongated ribs