October 1999 Archives

29 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Museum Accepts Cryptic Collection

by Robert Koenig

From Yeti, the reputed "Abominable Snowman" of the Himalayas, to real creatures such as the Tasmanian tiger thought to have vanished in 1936, improbable beasts called "cryptids" now have a...

29 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

First Glimpse of a Cosmic Funnel

by Mark Sincell

Astronomers have caught their first-ever glimpse of the funnel that channels a fountain of subatomic particles, erupting from the center of a galaxy, into a narrow stream thousands of light-years...

29 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

The Ultimate Underwater Technicolor

by Menno Schilthuizen

The world drips with color because the human eye has three types of so-called cone cells, which sense red, blue, and green light. But our vision is downright dull compared...

28 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Life and Death on a Computer

by Science News Staff

The idea of playing god on computers took off 30 years ago, when mathematician John Conway invented the Game of Life, in which colored cells in a grid vie for...

28 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

The Tortuous Path to an NIH Raise

by David Malakoff

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Congress has put biomedical research on the road to a major budget boost--but the spending faces a lengthy legislative detour before becoming reality. Late today, the U.S. House of...

28 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Lithium: A Weapon Against Huntington's?

by Laura Helmuth

MIAMI--An old drug may perform a new neurological trick. Lithium, used for 50 years to treat manic depression, also protects against a rat version of Huntington's disease, researchers reported here...

27 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Growing a Digital Garden

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) last week unveiled an online cornucopia for plant taxonomists: 2500 crisp digital photos of specimens from four vascular plant families. The dried plants, plucked...

27 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Testosterone May Be Addictive

by Laura Helmuth

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA--Some athletes and bodybuilders pump themselves with anabolic steroids, compounds that mimic or stimulate the hormone testosterone, to bulk up fast. New research presented yesterday at the Society...

27 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Fixing Drug-Addled Brains

by Laura Helmuth

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA--Scientists have restored the short-term memory of monkeys whose brains were damaged by amphetamines. The finding, presented here today at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting, raises hopes...

26 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Student Strike Engulfs Research Activities

by Jocelyn Kaiser

A student strike that has gripped Mexico's main university since April has now spread to the school's research institutions. Last week, some scientists spent hours negotiating for the right to...

26 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Ukrainian KGB Puts Heat on Researchers

by Richard Stone

In a draconian move, Ukrainian security agents last week accused three marine scientists of crimes against the state: exporting sensitive data and illegally accepting Western currency for research. The unprecedented...

26 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Simple Test Could Uncover Dyslexia

by Laura Helmuth

MIAMI--New findings support the notion that people with dyslexia have problems in a brain region called the cerebellum, psychologists reported here yesterday at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting. And...

25 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Quick Twist in the Field

by Science News Staff

Today is the birthday of Motonori Matuyama, a Japanese geophysicist born in 1884 who discovered that Earth's magnetic poles have flip-flopped throughout history. Matuyama studied traces of Earth's ancient magnetic...

25 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Fetal Cells Help Parkinson's Patients

by Laura Helmuth

MIAMI--Injecting fetal cells into the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease can slow down the progression of the disease, according to the first double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study of this procedure....

25 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

NSF's Beijing Brouhaha

by Jeffrey Mervis

Brushing aside the last-minute objections of an influential member of congress, the National Science Foundation (NSF) on Friday gave the green light to a science policy meeting in China now...

22 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Meteoric Career

by Science News Staff

Ernst Öpik, an Estonian astronomer whose wide-ranging work on meteors led to the development of heat shields for spacecraft, was born on 23 October 1893. Öpik studied the erosion of...

22 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Girding for Smallpox

by Eliot Marshall

U.S. health agencies appear ready to plow more cash into reducing one type of bioterrorist risk--an attack with the infamous smallpox virus. On 20 October, the National Institute of Allergy...

22 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Mutations That Dim the Fire of Life?

by Elizabeth Pennisi

Mutations in our cells' internal power plants, called mitochondria, may contribute to the aging process, according to a paper in today's issue of Science (p. 774). The study shows that...

21 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Fossils May Represent Oldest Dinos Yet

by Mari N. Jensen

In the dark red dirt of Madagascar, scientists have unearthed what they claim are the oldest dinosaur fossils ever found. The find, reported in tomorrow's issue of Science (22 October,...

21 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Enzyme Points Way to Alzheimer's Therapies

by Elizabeth Pennisi

Researchers are making new strides in one of the most frustrating of medical science's battles, the war against Alzheimer's disease. In this week's Science (21 October, p. 735) a team...

21 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

And There Was Light

by Science News Staff

Thomas Edison unveiled the first incandescent light bulb, which burned for 40 hours, on this day in 1879. Although the idea for converting electricity into light was first investigated in...

21 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Good Bug, Bad Bug

by Laura Helmuth

Escherichia coli bacteria have fallen into ill repute these days thanks to a particularly nasty strain, O157:H7, that in the last few years has killed several children who ate infected...

20 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

German Gene Genius

by Science News Staff

Today is the 57th birthday of Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, a developmental geneticist whose work has helped explain the mechanisms behind the early embryonic development of all multicellular organisms. In the late...

20 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Mammoth Remains Raised From Siberia

by Richard Stone

In the first-ever operation of its kind, scientists working in Siberia have excavated a huge chunk of permanently frozen soil containing the remains of a 23,000-year-old woolly mammoth. On 17...

20 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Secret of Soviet-Era Nuclear Blast Revealed

by Vladimir Pokrovsky

MOSCOW--For the past 3 decades, rumors have circulated here that in the early 1970s an accident at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, in a residential suburb of Moscow, released...

20 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

"X-ray Flashes" Puzzle Astronomers

by Govert Schilling

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA--It may sound like a feeble joke, but astronomers say they have discovered a new kind of gamma ray burst: one without gamma rays. At the 5th Huntsville Gamma...

19 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Ocean Magnate

by Science News Staff

Today is the 82nd birthday of Walter Munk, a geophysicist whose work has led to a better understanding of ocean currents, circulation, and tides. During World War II, Munk and...

19 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Building a Brain Trust

by Laura Helmuth

You needn't be a brainiac, but you should at least have an abiding interest in cognitive science if you want to become a charter member of a new online club...

19 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Nerve Gas Tablets Linked to Gulf War Syndrome

by Martin Enserink

WASHINGTON, D.C.--A drug used to protect U.S. troops in case of a nerve gas attack may be the cause of the Gulf War Syndrome, according to a study released by...

19 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Did One California Jolt Bring on Another?

by Richard A. Kerr

No crustal fault is an island, seismologists are learning. Last weekend's Hector Mine earthquake, which rocked the desert 160 kilometers northeast of Los Angeles, seems to support the idea that...

18 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

The Smell of a Hard Shower

by Science News Staff

Today is the birthday of Christian Schoenbein, a German chemist born in 1799 who named ozone and invented the first synthetic explosive. Schoenbein's work on ozone was considered a classic...

18 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Double Science Spending Fast, Says Gingrich

by Andrew Lawler

He may be out of office, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) hasn't lost his zeal for talking about the need for more research dollars. In an op-ed piece...

18 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Tracking Monster Icebergs

by Bernice Wuethrich

Since the hounds picked up its scent again last July, an iceberg the size of Rhode Island has sparked growing unease as it inches toward the busy shipping lanes off...

18 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Not Learning to Play by the Rules

by Laura Helmuth

People with sound social judgment can turn into misfits after the frontal lobes of their brains are damaged--but studies have shown that they still know what moral behavior is, even...

15 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Diversity Isn't Always Strength

by Kevin Boyd

Deflating a popular notion, two new reports suggest that ecosystems boasting many species aren't necessarily better at withstanding environmental assaults like drought or fire than are species-poor landscapes. Although their...

15 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Smoky Clouds Hoard Their Water

by Robert Irion

Standing too close to a smoky fire can make your eyes water. But for some clouds, smoke has the opposite effect. Satellite observations have shown for the first time that...

15 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Uncovering Ebola's Hideout?

by Michael Hagmann

One of the many unsolved riddles about the Ebola virus is where the deadly organism hides in between outbreaks in humans. For the first time, virologists have found traces of...

15 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Father of Physiology

by Science News Staff

Tomorrow is the birthday of Albrecht von Haller, the father of experimental physiology. Haller, a Swiss biologist born in 1708, worked as a professor in Bern and Göttingen. He undertook...

14 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Getting a Charge Out of Liquids

by Science News Staff

Friedrich Kohlrausch, a German physicist who did pioneering work on how electricity is transmitted in solutions, was born on this day in 1840. Kohlrausch is best known for a method...

14 October 1999 | ScienceNOW

Site Visit: Catching Up to Kinesin

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The molecular motor protein called kinesin is a cellular mover and shaker, stirring to action everything from cilia to dividing chromosomes. Hoping to unravel how kinesin uses adenosine triphosphate to...

October 1999 Archives

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