September 1999 Archives

30 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Head Start for Hunks

by Gretchen Vogel

Male animals have evolved everything from showy feathers to flashy fins--all in the hope, scientists suspect, of strutting their genetic stuff to potential mates. But do females just sit back,...

30 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Star Death Spawns Gamma Ray Bursts

by Alexander Hellemans

Astronomers think they have spotted the celestial powerhouses that generate the mysterious blasts of radiation known as gamma ray bursts. Three groups, who describe their results in this week's issue...

30 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

English-Metric Miscue Doomed Mars Mission

by Richard A. Kerr

NASA officials today cast blame for the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter on a misunderstanding over which units--English or metric--were being used to fine-tune the spacecraft's trajectory. On a...

30 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Neanderthals Were Cannibals

by Elizabeth Culotta

Neanderthals were skilled hunters, working together to fell deer, goats, and perhaps even woolly rhinos with wooden spears. After the kill, they expertly butchered the carcasses, slicing meat and tendons...

29 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

India Creates Novel Brain Research Center

by Pallava Bagla

NEW DELHI--India is hoping to break into the front ranks of neuroscience with a new National Brain Research Center (NBRC) that opens here this week. The venture hopes to capitalize...

29 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Double Dose of Nuclear Magic

by Alexander Hellemans

Scientists have discovered an isotope of nickel that should not exist. Normally, nuclei as light as nickel have roughly equal numbers of protons and neutrons, but the new nucleus has...

29 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Signs of Life in Antarctic Lake

by Richard Stone

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.--Scientists have discovered tantalizing evidence that microbes are living under nearly 4 kilometers of antarctic ice, leaving teams more eager than ever to explore a vast lake beneath the...

28 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Peering at the Crab's Power Supply

by Robert Irion

Astrophysicists have taken a new and detailed look at the blazing heart of the Crab Nebula, the remnants of a star that exploded into view nearly 1000 years ago. Images...

28 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

DOE Science Head Steps Down

by David Malakoff

The Department of Energy (DOE) will be needing a new science chief. Physicist Martha Krebs last week announced that she will leave her post as director of the Office of...

28 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

U.S. Adds $12 Million to Rice Sequencing Project

by Dennis Normile

PHUKET, THAILAND--Three U.S. agencies will award grants totaling $12.3 million to help speed an international effort to sequence the rice genome. The new support, to be announced next month but...

28 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Congress Gives NIH a Raise

by David Malakoff

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Biomedical research funding appears to be headed for another boom year. After months of delays that made science lobbyists anxious, congressional spending committees have approved hefty increases for the...

27 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

His Research Ran Deep

by Science News Staff

Today would have been the 79th birthday of Henry Stommel, an American oceanographer who studied the Gulf Stream and other ocean currents. Stommel applied simple mathematical models to the study...

27 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Those Virtual Lyin' Eyes

by Laura Helmuth

A new game challenges Netizens to mask their identities and strip others' online masks away. In the Turing Game, a takeoff on the 1970s game show To Tell the Truth,...

27 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Environmentally Minded Plastic Plants

by Michael Hagmann

Autumn brings heaps of apples, pumpkins, and other crops. Now another harvest is on the horizon, more akin to the plastic fruit on your grandmother's sideboard: Scientists have engineered plants...

24 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Lasker Winners

by Science News Staff

"America's Nobels," the annual awards--light on money but heavy in prestige--from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, go this year to six biomedical researchers. They include neuroscientist Seymour Kety, 84,...

24 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

On the Way to a Better Immunosuppressant?

by Science News Staff

Swapping body parts can save lives, but it has a serious risk. A transplant operation requires that patients be given powerful immunosuppressive drugs with potentially devastating side effects such as...

24 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

For Whom the Bell Tolls

by Science News Staff

Today is the birthday of Ivar Pavlov, a Russian physiologist born in 1849 who is best known for his studies of the conditioning of dogs. Between 1890 and 1900, Pavlov...

23 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

All Eyes on the Ribosome

by Science News Staff

The ribosome--the cell's large and complex protein factory--has long resisted efforts to decipher its structure, but now four groups of researchers have it in their sights. The findings have sparked...

23 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Tiny Flies May Offer Cancer Clues

by Science News Staff

Model airplanes, dollhouses, and other miniatures fascinate collectors with their exquisite detail; the most prized imitations look exactly like the real thing. Now scientists have created a teensy living fly....

23 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Fiery End for Mars Satellite

by Richard A. Kerr

Early this morning, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, were stunned to discover that the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) spacecraft, presumably entering orbit for a 2-year...

22 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

King Faraday

by Science News Staff

On this day in 1791, Michael Faraday, a renowned English physical chemist and popularizer of science, was born. Faraday is considered the most brilliant experimentalist of the 1800s for his...

22 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Weather Satellite for Mars

by Govert Schilling

The first interplanetary weather satellite will reach Mars in the wee hours on Thursday. But don't expect daily weather reports anytime soon. NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) will start monitoring...

22 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Breathing Life Into an Ancient Flute

by Guang-Shing Cheng

Listen closely and you may hear the gentle lilt of music from long ago. Archaeologists have discovered the oldest playable musical instruments: 9000-year-old flutes whose complex melodies evoke the first...

21 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

DOE Withdraws "Cold Fusion" Grant

by David Malakoff

In an embarrassing retreat, the Department of Energy (DOE) has nixed a controversial $100,000 grant that critics charged would support a "cold fusion" study. The recall represents a stumble for...

21 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

AIDS Researchers Blast NIH Peer Review Plan

by Eliot Marshall

WASHINGTON, D.C.--A scheme to overhaul peer review at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is drawing intense fire from the AIDS community. Complaints from patient activists and scientists have been...

21 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Italian Observatories to Join Forces

by Alexander Hellemans

NAPLES, ITALY--Small organizations usually resist being subsumed into a larger one. But for astronomers at Italy's observatories--all independent but funded directly by the government--their amalgamation into the new National Institute...

21 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Liquefying Gases

by Science News Staff

Today is the birthday of Louis-Paul Cailletet, a French physicist born in 1832 who was a master at liquefying gases. Cailletet grew up working in his father's ironworks and later...

20 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Grappling With Graptolites

by Science News Staff

Today is the 157th anniversary of the birth of Charles Lapworth, an English geologist famous for his work with marine fossils called graptolites. By fastidiously collecting the tiny, colonial sea...

20 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Space Science, Triana Face Senate Threat

by Andrew Lawler

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Vice President Al Gore's pet spacecraft, Triana, may face opposition on the Senate floor here this week when lawmakers consider the funding bill for NASA and the National Science...

20 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Vaccinations Without the Ouch!

by Dana Mackenzie

One of the rites of childhood could soon become a thing of the past: the vaccination shot. Researchers have found that in mice, at least, vaccines made of pure DNA...

17 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Plant Plumbing

by Science News Staff

Today is the 322nd anniversary of the birth of Stephen Hales, an English clergyman known for his careful biological research, particularly on the physiology and growth of plants. Hales conducted...

17 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Fungus Stronger Than an Elephant

by Elizabeth Norton Lasley

The leading crop killer and a growing threat to people with weakened immune systems, fungi--particularly some of the more vicious species--can drill into another organism's tissue with astonishing force. In...

17 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Fierce, Yes, But Feathered, Too

by Tim Appenzeller

Picture this: Adult Velociraptors, savage man-sized hunters with slashing claws, may have been covered in downy feathers, like newly hatched chicks. The same goes for the young of Tyrannosaurus rex,...

16 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

The First Vitamins

by Science News Staff

Today is the 112th anniversary of the birth of Marguerite Davis, an American chemist who co-discovered vitamins A and B. Davis worked at the University of Wisconsin with Elmer Vernon...

16 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Blue Lasers Power Up

by Alexander Hellemans

Blue and red lasers are both typically made of a layered semiconductor that gives off photons. The light escapes from one edge of the thin chip, which makes it difficult...

16 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

The Elvis of E. coli

by Mary Beckman

Carl Winter may be the hippest thing to happen to food safety. Although some critics might think this mild-mannered toxicologist is "Livin' La Vida Loca" by writing lyrics like "Beware...

15 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Its Editor Ousted, NEJM Loses Publisher

by Constance Holden

The publisher of The New England Journal of Medicine, Joel Baron, has quit his job less than 2 months after former Editor-in-Chief Jerome Kassirer was forced out. In a 13...

15 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

End of an Era as Cell Editor Steps Down

by Marcia Barinaga

Benjamin Lewin, the editor of Cell and its sister journal Molecular Cell, announced to his staff and editorial board yesterday that he plans to retire on 1 October. His sudden...

15 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Thumbs Up for Europe's Science Chief

by Robert Koenig

The European Union's (EU's) new research commissioner, Belgian socialist Philippe Busquin, will take office later this week after the European Parliament today approved the entire slate of new commissioners put...

15 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

How to Gain Weight on the Cheap

by Gretchen Vogel

For fish larvae, life boils down to one thing: Eat or be eaten. And so most change into their adult shape as fast as they can. An intriguing exception are...

September 1999 Archives

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