April 2000 Archives

« Previous
|
1
|
2

Previous Month Next Month

13 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Oklahoma Lawmakers Take a Shot at Darwin

by Charles Seife

"When adopting science textbooks, the Committee shall ensure that the textbooks include acknowledgment that human life was created by one God of the Universe." So reads an amendment to a...

13 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Amphibian Census Confirms Worldwide Decline

by Dana Mackenzie

The last 4 decades have not been good to frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders. According to the first worldwide study of amphibian populations, published in the 13 April Nature, their...

12 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

A Cheaper Way to Buy Genomic Data

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Commercial genome databases, with their multimillion-dollar subscription fees, have long been off-limits to anyone but drug companies. Now a few firms are trying to attract academic scientists by offering single-gene...

12 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Pushing and Shoving Single Atoms

by Mark Sincell

If scientists could easily manipulate single atoms, they might one day be able to build drugs and other molecules with unprecedented precision. It might even be possible to design computer...

12 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Dinos and Turkeys: Close Relatives?

by Constance Holden

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA--They said it couldn't be done. But a team at the University of Alabama just may have succeeded in extracting some DNA from a dinosaur. And guess what...

11 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Making Missiles Miss Is Easy, Scientists Say

by Adrian Cho

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Proponents of the controversial $7 billion National Missile Defense System (NMD) being developed by the Pentagon believe that interceptor missiles will be able to crash into enemy warheads as...

11 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Study Bolsters Link Between Smoking and Breast Cancer

by Christie Aschwanden

Smoking or inhaling second-hand smoke can increase the risk of breast cancer, according to a large study, published in the current issue of Cancer Causes and Control. The work may...

11 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Matchmaking for Drug Discovery

by Robert F. Service

TUCSON, ARIZONA--If drug companies are good at one thing, it's making tons of new molecules. In recent years, they've embraced a high-speed drug-producing technique known as combinatorial chemistry to churn...

10 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Three-Way Switch Directs Mouse Embryo Cell

by Dan Ferber

Researchers have pinpointed a genetic "master switch" that directs the developmental fate of embryonic stem cells from mice. If true for human cells too, the finding could help researchers grow...

10 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

A Molecule That Shapes the Senses

by Gretchen Vogel

Like the image in a funhouse mirror, the cortex of your brain contains a distorted map of your body. This part of the brain connects with touch-sensing nerves. Neuroscientists call...

10 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

A New Lease on Mir's Life

by Andrew Lawler

Like Rasputin, Mir never seems to die. The 14-year-old space station is again open for business, after a 7-month hiatus, and a Netherlands-based company called Mir Corp. is eager to...

7 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Herbal Remedy Threatens Medicinal Tree

by Elizabeth Lasley

Soaring demand for an herbal medicine is threatening the tree from which it is produced. The African evergreen tree Prunus africana, the source of an extract popular with people suffering...

7 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

New Source of Sun Spurts Looks Loopy

by Alexander Hellemans

Although the sun seems perfectly smooth from Earth, its surface is roiled by huge eruptions. A few times each day these eruptions spew out charged particles as coronal mass ejections...

7 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Your Cheatin' Germs

by Menno Schilthuizen

Cheating isn't limited to kids in classrooms: Duplicitous behavior is common in many social animals, from ants to lions. Now a team of microbiologists says that cheating could even take...

6 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Fusion Research Gets a New Squeeze

by Charles Seife

A new technique brings scientists closer than ever to harnessing the power of fusion, the process that fuels the sun. A fusion reactor is still a long way away, but...

6 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Monkeys Know It's Smart to Share

by Dana Mackenzie

Capuchin monkeys have a skill previously seen only in chimpanzees and humans: They know how to share. One capuchin monkey will help another get food, and in return the second...

6 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Artificial Cells Bait the Immune System

by Adrian Cho

Much as prison guards sic bloodhounds on an escaped inmate, certain cells set the immune system's killer cells on the molecular trails of viruses or other intruders. Now researchers have...

6 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Underground Genome Project Pleases Rice Researchers

by Elizabeth Pennisi

Rice research got a boost earlier this week when the biotech company Monsanto announced that it is 2 weeks away from finishing a rough draft of the genome for rice,...

5 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Transgenic Crops Report Fuels Debate

by Jocelyn Kaiser

WASHINGTON--Wading into one of the most politically charged of scientific issues, a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel today called for fine-tuning the regulation of plants genetically modified to repel...

5 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Out of Water, Onto Land

by Michael Hagmann

LONDON--Life started in the water, scientists agree, and between 380 million and 350 million years ago some of the more intrepid fish crept onto land, following plants and insects. But...

5 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Blowing Shark Cartilage out of the Water

by Michael Hagmann

Shark cartilage is a popular folk remedy for cancer even though there's no scientific evidence that it works. But a new study may blunt its appeal: Scientists reported last week...

5 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Comet Tail Stretches Far Out

by Mark Sincell

Four years ago, the spacecraft Ulysses hit a strange smooth patch in its bumpy ride through the solar wind. At the same time, its detectors were suddenly peppered with an...

4 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

New Blood for Stanford

by Robert F. Service

In keeping with its history of finding new leadership within, Stanford University yesterday tapped Provost John L. Hennessy to take over as president beginning 1 September. Hennessy, who succeeds Gerhard...

4 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Jury Rules for Researcher, Against Stanford

by Robert F. Service

A federal jury last week ordered Stanford University to pay $545,000 to a former medical informatics researcher who was laid off 3 years ago after alleging sex discrimination on the...

4 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Chocolate Trees Under Fungal Siege

by Anne Simon Moffat

Next time you scarf down a handful of M&Ms, don't take them for granted. The little morsels don't grow on trees. But the beans that produce chocolate do--at least right...

4 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Bringing Science to the National Parks

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has been criticized for neglecting the science necessary for good land management. A new plan aims to bolster research in the parks, by investing...

3 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

And Now, the Birdcast

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Passing almost unnoticed in the night, billions of birds will fly over the mid-Atlantic states this spring on their annual migration northward. A new Web site will help ornithologists pinpoint...

3 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Chemical Pass Escorts Drugs Inside Cells

by Robert F. Service

SAN FRANCISCO--For pharmaceutical-makers, discovering a new drug isn't the whole battle. Getting a compound inside cells can be just as difficult. Water-soluble drugs, for example, can move through the bloodstream,...

3 April 2000 | ScienceNOW

Jaywalking Threatens Imperiled Species

by Mari N. Jensen

Although the roadside sight of flattened fauna is familiar enough, few scientists have documented road kill's effect on populations of animals. Now researchers report that for a group of threatened...