60-SECOND SCIENCE FROM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN(SEP.-NOV.

November 9, 2007

Researchers Sniff Out Brain Sex Differences

Microscopic roundworms are attracted to the smells of different foods depending on whether or
not they have male brains. Researchers hope that understanding such characteristics could lead to
insights about why humans have sex-related risk differences for certain psychological conditions,
such as autism and depression. Cynthia Graber reports.

Do psychological conditions vary by sex? More boys are diagnosed with autism, and more girls
with depression. Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center want to understand
any such sex differences. So the researchers studied smell and gender in nearly microscopic
roundworms.

What can we learn about our brains from tiny worms? Well, these creatures have a relatively
simple and well-mapped nervous system. Some are male, and some are hermaphroditic. Scientists
presented the worms with two scents. One smelled like buttery popcorn, another like green
vegetables. Hermaphrodites mostly crawled towards buttery popcorn, while males preferred
vegetables.

Then scientists manipulated some of the hermaphroditic neurons to behave like they were male.
And the newly male worms now crawled towards the green peppery smell. What does this tell us
about male and female human brains? Well, not much yet. But what surprised researchers is that
brain neurons present in both sexes—like those that register smell preference—have different
characteristics depending on the sex of the worm. This is a step on a path scientists hope will lead
to greater understanding about our own sex differences and mental illness.

—Cynthia Graber

November 8, 2007

NASA Airs Real Reality TV Show

Shouldn't live coverage of astronauts working in space be more compelling than staged reality TV
shows? Steve Mirsky inquires.

The space shuttle Discovery landed on Wednesday, after 15 days in orbit above the Earth.
NASA’s TV channel is available on the satellite system I have at home, so at one point during the
mission, I tuned in. And there was an astronaut, live, in space, doing some construction work on
the International Space Station.
I’m not a fan of reality TV—I’ve never seen Survivor or the Amazing Race or any of the other
programs that get big ratings. But here was real reality TV, including a real Survivor—Daniel
Tani, an astronaut who had made it through multiple levels of tests to get chosen in the first place,
who had then undergone years of rigorous training and who was at that very moment performing
incredibly dangerous work in outer space! And that left me a bit baffled. How is it that staged
reality TV shows attract tens of millions of viewers, but the televised exploits of people risking
their lives in space are pretty much ignored? Feel free to leave a comment in the podcast section
at our new site, 60secondscience.com

November 7, 2007

Baby Spiders Really Take It Out of Moms

In at least one species of spider, numerous females will care for the babies of the one female with
offspring. And all the females will be consumed by the next generation. Cynthia Graber reports.

Talk about maternal sacrifice. In a rather freakish twist of nature, baby spiders in some species
completely devour their moms. And now researchers have discovered that the practice can get
even stranger. Scientists from Israel’s Ben Gurion University wanted to know if spiders
participate in cooperative group mothering, as some mammals and birds do. They investigated a
species of spider from southern Africa known for maternal care and for communal living. The
results appear in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

In some experimental nests, the researchers left a group of females intact but removed egg sacks
from all but one of the mothers-to-be. In control groups there was only one female and her eggs.
At the end of the study, they checked on the health of the spider babies. In those groups with
multiple moms, more eggs successfully hatched and the brood was healthier overall. As for the
moms? They were almost all sucked dry, leaving only their crispy exoskeletons. So now at
least one species of spider is known to participate in communal mothering. And under the right
circumstances even the surrogate moms sacrificing everything for the offspring.

—Cynthia Graber

November 6, 2007

Linnaeus Knew What's In A Name

Attention Homo sapiens: Carl Linnaeus's book Systema Naturae, in which he introduced the
modern system of taxonomic nomenclature, is on display November 6 at the Harvard Museum of
Natural History and November 8th through 10th at the New York Botanical Garden. Steve Mirsky
reports. For more info, go to www.hmnh.harvard.edu and www.nybg.org
Stephen Jay Gould said that every species designation represents a theory about that organism.
The species assignment is more than a mere naming; it is a classification of the organism within
the context of all the other creeping, crawling, clinging and cavorting life on earth. So once a
scientist names the species, the way that organism fits into the web of life is also announced.
Close relatives are in the same genus. More distant ones are in the same class, and so on.

Almost 300 years ago, before there even was a good theory of evolution, Carl Linnaeus invented
the modern species classification system. And this week, an event takes place that is even rarer
than the discovery of a new species. Linnaeus’s own, annotated copy of his book Systema
Naturae will be on public display—November 6th at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and November 8th through 10th at the New York Botanical Garden in
the Bronx. The book was published in 1735 and introduced the genus-species system that is still
in use by we Homo sapiens.

November 5, 2007

Sheer Luck Holmes A Bright Comet

A lucky crack may explain why Comet Holmes, back in view after a 115 year absence, is much
brighter in the night sky than expected. Chelsea Wald reports.

Your wait is over: Comet Holmes is back. Oh, you’ve never heard of it? Well, that’s actually not
surprising, since until recently you needed a big telescope to see it. But on October 24th, it
suddenly brightened. Now you can see it with your naked eye. Just look up at the constellation
Perseus. Comet Holmes is the yellow fuzzball that's not on any star charts.

The comet was also having an outburst when skywatcher Edwin Holmes first spotted it in 1892.
But scientists say it should be more docile than this, since it’s small and doesn’t fly as close to the
sun as, say, Halley’s Comet. So what happened? If the comet’s surface cracked, the sun could
have vaporized newly exposed ice, liberating dust and gas. And this comet’s yellow glow comes
from sunlight reflecting off that dust. Now some skywatchers are reporting a tail growing on
Comet Holmes, though its orientation means it’ll look stubby from Earth. Even so, this upstart
snowball is exceeding all expectations.

—Chelsea Wald

November 2, 2007

Honey Sticks It To Wounds

Low moisture content and chemicals in honey make it a possible antiseptic and wound treatment.
Cynthia Graber reports.
You’re chopping vegetables in the kitchen, and the knife slips. Suddenly blood is dripping from
a gash in your hand. You search for antibiotic ointment but don’t have any. But there may be
some in the kitchen cupboard—honey. Scientists recently published a review of honey in the
International Journal of Clinical Practice. They examined 18 studies from the past 60 years, and
found overwhelming evidence that honey can help speed up healing and prevent infection.

Actually, honey’s been used to treat wounds for thousands of years. But it fell out of favor in the
1940s when antibiotics came on the scene. Today, though, people are worried about antibiotic
resistance and are also looking to natural remedies. Honey works because of a number of
properties that inhibit bacterial growth. There’s its low moisture content. And as the glucose in
honey breaks down in air, it naturally forms hydrogen peroxide, an antiseptic agent. Scientists
say that the research suggests that honey might be particularly useful when a wound becomes
infected or fails to close or heal after surgery. Honey was even shown to reduce amputation rates
among diabetes patients suffering from open, infected sores.

—Cynthia Graber

November 1, 2007

Mom's Baby Talk Crucial For Baby

Adults have to engage in baby talk, regardless of the language they speak, so that babies can learn
to talk like adults. Kevin Begos reports.

It turns out that whether you grew up speaking English, Mandarin or Swahili, you learned by
listening to your mother speak in that seemingly silly, high-pitched baby talk. Researchers at the
University of Washington have discovered what's special - and apparently universal - about baby
talk. It turns out that mothers stretch vowels to make speech clearer. And infants are so attracted
to the higher-pitched talk that they'll turn their heads to listen over and over. They don’t do that
when confronted with normal adult speech.

The researchers also found that by just 12 months of age, the infant brains start to favor a specific
language. And the ability to understand foreign languages starts to decline. But the brains of
babies who grew up learning two languages may stay open to new sounds longer. And there are
no shortcuts to a mother or other adult making all those silly sounds—research also shows that
infants learn virtually nothing from even high quality recordings of baby talk. No they don’t!
No they don’t!

--Kevin Begos

October 31, 2007

Warp of the Worlds
Widely distributed emails claim--falsely--that Mars will get close enough to Earth to appear as
large as the moon. Steve Mirsky and Orson Welles report.

October 31, 2007 -- Warp of the Worlds

Audio clip of Orson Welles: “That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an
inhabitant of the pumpkin patch. And if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no
Martian—it’s Halloween.” That’s how Orson Welles ended his Mercury Theater version of HG
Well’s War of the Worlds on October 30, 1938. The broadcast was designed to sound like live
news coverage of an invasion of Earth by Martians. And a lot of people fell for it.

Now there’s some more Martian misinformation fooling folks. This one’s not so scary. A lot of
people are getting email claiming that in the next few weeks the planet Mars will get close enough
to the Earth so that it will appear to be about the same size as the moon. Our friends at Sky and
Telescope magazine report that email dating back to 2003 mentioned that in a 75x magnifying
telescope Mars would look about as big as the moon does—to the naked eye. Somewhere along
the line the telescope part got lost. So don’t worry. Mars, even at its closest, is still small and
safely far away.

Welles: “It’s Halloween.”

October 30, 2007

Explain the Universe In Your Sleep!

Cosmology@Home is a new distributed computing project that tries to use off-duty home
computers to unravel the secrets of the universe. Steve Mirsky reports. For more info, go to
cosmologyathome.org

October 30, 2007 -- Explain the Universe In Your Sleep!

Turning off the computer at night can save energy. But if you’re going to leave it on, here’s
something you might want to do with it—figure out the secrets of the universe.

Distributed computing projects spread difficult problems out among numerous computers,
sometimes around the world. The SETI@Home project is a well-known example, which
searches radio telescope data for evidence of extraterrestrial signals. Another project looks for a
special class of prime numbers called Mersenne primes.

Now there’s a new distributed computing project called Cosmology@Home. The idea is that
your unused computer power can help in cutting-edge cosmology research. The computers come
up with predictions based on different theoretical models of the universe that have different
parameters. These predictions can then be compared with the actual data that astronomers
generate—data such as the acceleration of the universe, the way galaxies are distributed, even the
way the cosmic microwave background radiation fluctuates. The models that make predictions
that agree with the real data are probably the ones you can trust. The project is funded by the
National Science Foundation. For more info, go to cosmologyathome.org

October 29, 2007

Autumn Leaves' Brilliant Colors Good For Trees

The bright red leaves of autumn deliver more nutrients to the trees than they would without the
brilliant coloration. Karen Hopkin reports.

October 29, 2007 -- Autumn Leaves' Brilliant Colors Good For Trees

Fall is here and across the country, leaves are turning their traditional autumn colors. And as
always, the sight of so many trees decked out in brilliant reds, yellows, and golds, prompts
leaf-peepers, kindergarteners, and even scientists to ponder—how come they do that?

After all, it takes energy to produce all those pretty pigments. So why would a tree bother to do it,
if those leaves are only gonna turn brown and fall off, anyway?

Now, scientists at the University of North Carolina think they know the dirty secret: it’s the soil.
Surveying the sweetgum and maple trees in a nature preserve in Charlotte, the North Carolina
researchers found that trees that grew in nutrient-poor soil produced more red pigment, results
they just presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

Their findings back a discovery made in 2003, by a researcher in Montana, who found that
blocking the production of red pigments, in plants that like to make them, renders their leaves
unusually sensitive to sunlight. These super-sensitive leaves deliver fewer nutrients to the plant.

So when the soil is poor, it would make sense to make pigment, to keep those leaves working
longer. Which is good for the trees—and for the peepers.

October 26, 2007

Prediction of Global Warming High May Be Impossible

Reseachers find that, no matter how much data they collect, they may not be able to get a good
estimate of the highest temperature increases that global warming may bring. Karen Hopkin
reports. Also see tinyurl.com/29z39x
October 26, 2007 -- Prediction of Global Warming High May Be Impossible

Ben Franklin said that nothing’s certain but death and taxes. Today, scientists might add global
warming to that list. But though most scientists are certain that more CO2 means a toastier globe,
what they can’t pin down is how much warmer it’s going to get.

If that sounds like a forecast only Heisenberg could love, well, too bad—that’s just the way it is.
Or so say researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle in the October 26th issue of the
journal Science.

The researchers were working on equations to help climatologists get the most out of their climate
models. The current models, run on decades worth of data, predict that we could be looking at a
planet that’s 2 to 5 degrees warmer, although there’s a chance it could be closer to 10.

What the researchers discovered is that no matter how much data the scientists feed into their
models, they’re never going to get a more precise estimate of the high end than that.

Perhaps the finding will encourage policymakers to act now, rather than calling for more data
before making any decisions on the environment. Or the lack of definitive info about the worst
case scenarios could give climate change skeptics an excuse to try to table any action.

October 25, 2007

First Land Vertebrates Probably Had Color Vision

DNA from the retinas of lungfish, the closest living relatives to the first terrestrial vertebrates, is
closer to retinal DNA from land animals than to retinal DNA from fish. The first land creatures
thus probably had decent color vision. Steve Mirsky reports.

October 25, 2007 -- First Land Vertebrates Probably Had Color Vision

Look before you leap, the old adage has it. Well, it seems that the animals that first ventured out
onto the land from the sea were well equipped to look when they made that leap. Researchers
studied the retinas of the eyes of lungfish, which are thought to be the closest living relatives to
the first vertebrates that lived on land. Lungfish use gills to take in oxygen, but can also breathe
air if necessary. And they live in shallow freshwater habitats with a lot of light. So it would
make sense that they could see pretty well in a nearly terrestrial environment.

And indeed, DNA in the genes for visual pigments in the retinas of the lungfish turned out to be
much closer to the sequences found in four-legged animals than with other kinds of fish. The
work appears in the journal Biomed Central Evolutionary Biology.
So the early land-dwellers were probably pre-adapted to seeing well in their new environment,
which must have come in handy for finding food and mates. How did the first creatures that
crawled out of the sea smell? Probably pretty bad.

October 24, 2007

Height Affects Perception of Health

Data from England show that shorter people perceive their health as being poorer than tall or
average-height people do. Steve Mirsky reports.

October 24, 2007 -- Height Affects Perception of Health

Height is correlated with a lot of things. Up to a certain height, taller people make more money
than the vertically challenged. And the taller presidential candidate almost always wins. Now a
study finds that your height as an adult has a profound effect on your perception of your health.
Short people judge their health to be worse than average or tall people judge theirs. The research
was published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology.

Data for the study came from the 2003 Health Survey for England. More than 14,000
participants filled out questionnaires and had their heights measured. The study only looked at
how good the subject thought his or her health was, not their actual health. Questions focused on
five areas: mobility, self-care, normal activities, pain or discomfort and anxiety or depression.
Men shorter than about 5’4” and women shorter than 5’ reported the worst impressions. But
small increases in height at the low end had much bigger effects on perception than the same
increases among taller people. Other studies have shown, ironically, that shorter people on
average actually live longer.

October 23, 2007

Good Vibrations May Stop Fat From Forming

Mice that spent 15 minutes a day on a vibrating platform had 30 percent less fat around their
middles than mice on stationary surfaces. Karen Hopkin reports.

October 23, 2007 -- Good Vibrations May Stop Fat From Forming

If you’re like me, somewhere in your closet, or maybe in a drawer, you probably have a pair of
pants you hope to someday fit into. Again. But staying on a diet and finding time to exercise—it’s
no walk in the park.
But wait! Before you swear off the spaghetti, scientists at the State University of New York in
Stony Brook have stumbled onto a new way to slenderize. They found that mice that spend 15
minutes a day standing on a vibrating platform are leaner than mice who just stand still. Their
results appear in the current online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.

All the animals in the experiment were allowed to eat their fill. Interestingly, after 15 weeks, the
shaken mice didn’t actually weigh any less. But compared to the mice who hung out on a
stationary platform, they had about 30 percent less fat around their middles.

The SUNY scientists think that the jiggling kept fat cells from forming. Whether it would do the
same for people, you never know. And here you thought New Yorkers were lean and mean
because they’re always in a hurry rushing here and there. Maybe it’s because they spend so much
time standing on vibrating subway platforms, waiting for the uptown express.

October 22, 2007

Joe Torre and the Psychology of Persuasion

Former Yankee manager Joe Torre made good use of social psychology techniques that were
outlined in a February 2001 Scientific American article by Robert Cialdini called The Science of
Persuasion, available at www.sciamdigital.com. Steve Mirsky reports.

October 22, 2007 -- Joe Torre and the Psychology of Persuasion

The 12-year tenure of New York Yankees manager Joe Torre ended last week. At a science
conference in 2000, Washington Post baseball writer Tom Boswell discussed Torre’s success in
terms of the principles set forth in a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by
Robert Cialdini. Scientific American went on to commission a February 2001 article by Cialdini,
available at sciamdigital.com. The piece discusses six major persuasion factors, which Torre
used to such great effect.

One is reciprocity—you’re more likely to go out of your way for someone who has done so for
you. The second is consistency—acting consistently shows people you can be trusted. Third,
social validation—get enough people on the same page and the rest will likely follow due to peer
pressure. Fourth is simply likeability—people are more likely to respond to somebody they like.
Fifth is authority—Torre’s quiet dignity and outstanding record as a player himself gave him great
authority with players. And sixth is scarcity—things in limited supply are more desirable.
Which should make the one and only Joe Torre a hot commodity on the baseball market.

October 19, 2007

Brain Chemical Makes Good Glue
At the right pH, the hormone and neurotransmitter dopamine turns out to be a really good
adhesive. Karen Hopkin reports.

October 19, 2007 -- Brain Chemical Makes Good Glue

Dopamine. It’s a crucial brain chemical, involved in problem solving and feeling pleasure. Now
it’s gotten scientists into a sticky situation—because they used dopamine to make a biologically
based superglue. The research appeared in the October 19th issue of the journal Science.

Engineers at Northwestern University were looking to produce a glue as strong and versatile as the
cement made by mussels—which can cling to rocks, ship hulls, and even each other. Mussel glue
is made of protein, which can be tricky to produce in bulk. So the scientists turned to dopamine,
because it has some of the same chemical components found in the gummy protein.

Sure enough, when the engineers mixed up a vat of dopamine, and adjusted the pH to match that
of seawater, they found that it sticks to pretty much everything. All you have to do is dip the item
of interest and it’s instantly coated with dopa-glue.

Best of all, you can then get other stuff to stick to the dopamine coat. Say you want to remove lead
from your drinking water—just let it wash over the sticky dopamine and the toxic metal stays.
Fascinating that the dopamine in the researchers’ brains probably helped them solve the problem
of creating dopamine that sticks like mussels.

October 18, 2007

Vocal Joysticks Control Cursors With Sounds

Mouth sounds, rather than whole words or sentences, control vocal joysticks, enabling people
without the use of their hands to deftly use computers. Cynthia Graber reports.

October 18, 2007 -- Vocal Joysticks Control Cursors With Sounds

The internet has changed the world. But the information and resources it provides can be out of
reach to those with physical disabilities that affect their hands and arms. Now scientists at the
University of Washington are developing a solution using the human voice. It’s called a Vocal
Joystick. You might be thinking, okay, the software recognizes speech. So someone says, “scroll
down the page,” and the cursor responds. But saying that sentence takes too long—people without
physical disabilities navigate the web much faster than that.

Instead of full sentences, vowels move the Vocal Joystick cursor in eight directions. Sounds like
ah, ee and oo, k or ch, release the mouse. Raising the pitch of the voice speeds the cursor. The
Vocal Joystick has been developed for the internet, for playing video games, even for operating a
robotic arm. Developers believe that it could eventually allow people to drive a wheelchair using
only sounds. They also plan on incorporating other vocal expressions such as trills and vibrato into
later versions. Which eventually could sound something like singing to a computer.

October 17, 2007

Garlic's Malodorous Medicinal Magic

Garlic's cardiovascular benefits may be due to the chemical that smells like rotten eggs--hydrogen
sulfide, which acts as a chemical messenger. Karen Hopkin reports.

October 17, 2007 -- Garlic's Malodorous Medicinal Magic

Various studies have suggested that eating garlic can be good for you. It’s been credited with
lowering blood pressure, protecting against heart disease, preventing blood clots, even fighting off
colds. Now researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham think they have a better
idea how garlic might work its medicinal magic.

The Alabama team exposed red blood cells to the juices pressed from a standard,
supermarket-issue clove of garlic. And they found that the garlic-soaked cells started giving off
hydrogen sulfide, which is the gas that gives rotten eggs their delightful bouquet.

Ok, I know you’re probably thinking that smelling like sewage seems even more odious than
reeking of garlic. But on a molecular level, a pinch of hydrogen sulfide can be just what the doctor
ordered. Because hydrogen sulfide serves as a chemical messenger that helps relax blood vessels
and increase blood flow. Which could explain some of garlic’s cardiovascular benefits. Of course
more studies are needed to show whether a clove a day really does keep the doctor away. In the
meantime, enjoy your garlic bread. And don’t worry about the garlic breath. Just think what the
insides of your arteries must smell like.

October 16, 2007

The Buzz Is That Elephants Fear Bees

Habitat destruction raises the risk of unhappy interactions between elephants and people. But
harnessing elephants' natural fear of bees may be a solution. Cynthia Graber reports.

October 16, 2007 -- The Buzz Is That Elephants Fear Bees

Elephants squeeze into ever smaller habitats as people move into their territory. And this causes
problems. Hungry elephants can charge into villages and towns, destroying crops and buildings.
Sometimes people respond by shooting. But these conflicts between humans and elephants may
soon get some help from a simple, low-tech solution: bees. It turns out elephants are afraid of
them.

It was known that elephants went out of their way to avoid bees. So scientists in Kenya decided to
test whether bees could be used deliberately to scare elephants off. They recorded sounds of
disturbed hives. Then they placed those recordings near trees around known elephant families. In
other trees they placed a control, a white noise buzz. Within just over a minute, sixteen of
seventeen elephant families had fled the scene of the bee sounds. Half of them split within only
the first ten seconds. In contrast, none left the white noise in the first ten seconds, and only four
moved away after a minute. Scientists believe that beehives may be one more tool to help avoid
elephant-human clashes,- not to mention the money to be made from selling honey. A winning
solution all around.

October 15, 2007

Fireflies' Flash May Make Them Meals

Fireflies who announce their availability with lots of light also risk becoming fast food. Karen
Hopkin reports.

October 15, 2007 -- Fireflies' Flash May Make Them Meals

When it comes to courtship, females do favor flashier males. Just take a look at the peacock and
his brilliant come-hither tailfeathers. And when it comes to fireflies, females are drawn to males
whose flash is rapid and strong. But if the gals like bigger brighter displays, what keeps males
from evolving a light show as luminous as a guy in a convertible with a dozen gold chains around
his neck? Well, it turns out that male fireflies that are too obvious are more likely to get eaten.
Or so say scientists at Tufts University, in the November issue of American Naturalist.

To determine why fireflies don’t go all out when it comes to illumination, the Tufts team set out to
uncover the hidden costs of producing light. They found that flashing doesn’t put much of a strain
on a firefly’s energy reserves. So it’s not that they’re trying to avoid burn-out—they’re trying to
avoid becoming take-out. Because bugs who flash too fast tend to attract more than the
light-of-their-lives. They attract predatory fireflies looking for a snack. And, sad to say, their last
thoughts probably are something like, “Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! [CHOMP]
Look at…”

October 12, 2007

Plant Passion Truly Hot

The male cycad plant's temperature transitions lead to odor changes that first attract and then repel
tiny insects, called thrips. And the comings and goings of the thrips fertilize the female cycads.
The research was reported in the journal Science. Cynthia Graber reports.

October 12, 2007 -- Plant Passion Truly Hot

Plants known as cycads are so old they’re sometimes called living fossils. And their sex life was
thought to be pretty boring. The male cone—the sexual part of the plant—has pollen. The female
cone has eggs. Scientists thought that wind picked up the pollen and eggs and randomly mixed
them together. But recent studies showed that the eggs are too tightly packed to blow away, and in
fact insects called thrips pollinate the plants. Now cycad sex is turning steamy.

It turns out that the male plants emit a chemical that attracts thrips. Then the cones heat up
between 11 and 3 in the afternoon. They can get up to 25 degrees warmer than the surrounding air.
As the plants get hotter, that stinky chemical gets stronger and stronger until it’s so overpowering
that it drives the thrips out of the male cycads. The pollen carriers fly around, enter the female
cones and drop their pollen packages. As the males cool down, the stink dissipates until it reaches
levels that are once again thrip-enticing. This process continues until the males have used up their
heating energy reserves, and the females are pollinated. And all are worn out.

October 11, 2007

Two Genes Can Be Better Than One

Gene duplication gives evolution new raw material to work with--and evolutionary biologist Sean
Carroll has tracked how a single yeast gene with two functions gave rise to two genes with
specialized talents. Steve Mirsky reports.

October 11, 2007 -- Two Genes Can Be Better Than One

Random genetic variation followed by natural selection is the workaday mechanism of evolution.
But the occasional big genetic accident can jumpstart the process. University of Wisconsin
evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll has a report in the current issue of Nature that looks at gene
duplication—which he calls a “source of newness”—in the model organism yeast. Says Carroll,
“When you have two copies of a gene, useful mutations can arise that allow one or both genes to
explore new functions while preserving the old function. This phenomenon is going on all the time
in every living thing.”

In the Nature study, Carroll tracked a piece of the last 100 million years of yeast evolution—what
happened following the duplication of a gene involved in the digestion of the sugar galactose.
The original gene had two functions related to metabolizing the sugar. Says Carroll, “Natural
selection has taken one gene with two functions and sculpted an assembly line with two
specialized genes.” And, in this case, two genes are better than one.

October 10, 2007

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Birthday boy Gerhard Ertl wins the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing important new
methods for investigating chemical reactions that take place on surfaces--catalytic converters and
fuel cells depend on such surface chemistry. Steve Mirsky reports. The April 1993 Scientific
American "Catalysis on Surfaces" is available at www.sciamdigital.com

October 10, 2007 -- The 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 10th is the birthday of Germany’s Gerhard Ertl, who got the best present a scientist can
receive—he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Ertl won the chemistry prize for his development of
methods for studying how chemical reactions occur on surfaces. Understanding surface
chemistry means gaining insights into the details of such fundamental processes as the rusting of
iron, the workings of cars’ catalystic converters, the function of fuel cells, and the reactions that
produce artificial fertilizers. Surface chemistry even comes into play in studies of the integrity of
the ozone layer, because chemical reactions that destroy ozone take place on the surfaces of ice
crystals in the stratrosphere.

Ertl developed many of his techniques for studying surface chemistry by investigating the
Haber-Bosch reaction. In that reaction, which takes place on a surface of iron, nitrogen is pulled
out of the air and combined with hydrogen to form ammonia, for use in fertilizers. The process
has been used for a century, but Ertl explained it in detail for the first time. In addition to the
Nobel Prize, Ertl’s birthday presents included a lovely walking stick.

October 9, 2007

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics

Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg share the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for their independent
discoveries of Giant Magnetoresistance, or GMR, which was used to miniaturize data storage, for
example, on hard drives. Steve Mirsky reports. A Scientific American article on Spintronics, made
possible by GMR, is available at tinyurl.com/yorj8z

October 9, 2007 -- The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded October 9th to Albert Fert of France and
Germany’s Peter Grünberg for their discovery of a new physical effect called Giant
Magnetoresistance, or GMR. They independently found that under the right conditions, weak
magnetic changes could cause big differences in electrical resistance. That phenomenon made it
possible to store vast amounts of data on ever smaller hard drives.

The info on a hard drive is stored in tiny areas magnetized in different directions. To get more
and more info packed onto a disk, the magnetic changes between sections have to be very small.
But a read-out head based on GMR can convert tiny magnetic differences into electrical resistance
differences and thus into currents that correspond to data on the disk. GMR is thus considered an
early example of nanotechnology.

GMR led to Spintronics, which combines the charge and magnetic properties of electrons. See
the June 2002 Scientific American cover story on Spintronics at sciam.com (and
tinyurl.com/yorj8z)

October 8, 2007

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies share the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine for the development of gene targeting in mice, which made possible the discovery of
numerous gene functions and the creation of many mouse models for human diseases. Steve
Mirsky reports. A Scientific American profile of Mario Capecchi is available at
tinyurl.com/26z8wv

October 8, 2007 -- The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced early October 8th. The winners were
Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah, Martin Evans of Cardiff University and Oliver
Smithies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The won for their discoveries
leading to gene targeting in mice.

Gene targeting allows researchers to inactivate individual genes. By the gene’s absence, its true
function is often revealed. Numerous genes involved in health and disease have been found
using gene targeting. And researchers can knock out specific genes to create mouse models of
human diseases, including diabetes and cancer. More than 500 such mouse models have been
created.

Capecchi discovered genes crucial for mammalian organ development and the body plan in
general. That work has revealed the causes of several birth defects. Evans developed models for
the disease cystic fibrosis. And Smithies created mouse models for hypertension and
atherosclerosis.

To read a Scientific American magazine profile of Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi, go to

tinyurl.com/26z8wv
October 5, 2007

The 2007 Ig Nobel Prizes

The Ig Nobel Prizes, for research that cannot, or should not, be reproduced, were awarded October
4th in Cambridge, Mass. Steve Mirsky reports.

October 5, 2007 -- The 2007 Ig Nobel Prizes

It’s Nobel Prize season, which means that the Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded October 4th, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Igs go to work that “cannot, or should not, be reproduced.”
They allegedly are designed to “first make people laugh, and then make people think.” Or think
twice, anyway. Some of the winners:

The medicine prize went to a study on sword swallowing. One sword swallower did it on a
unicycle. Which could lead to the worst flat tire story ever.

The biology prize went to a Dutch researcher for her census of all the mites, insects, spiders,
crustaceans, bacteria, algae, ferns and fungi that we share our beds with. Fun guys were not
included.

The chemistry prize was awarded to a Japanese scientist for extracting vanilla flavoring from cow
manure. Yes, the research was a flop.

Speaking of Dutch and Japanese, Spanish researchers took home the linguistics prize for showing
that rats sometimes can’t tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a
person speaking Dutch backwards. Si, es verdad. For more listen to the October 10th edition of
the weekly Sci Am podcast.

October 4, 2007

Software Alone Doubles Cellphone Memory

But shuttling data into and out of compressed form on the fly, cellphone memory can be doubled.
Steve Mirsky reports.

October 4, 2007 -- Software Alone Doubles Cellphone Memory

No matter how much memory you have in your cellphone or PDA, you’d probably like to have
more. Now computer engineers have come up with a way to possibly double your memory in
cellphones and other devices strictly by software. Northwestern University researchers working
with colleagues at NEC Laboratories America, Inc., came up with the software methodology, and
have applied for a patent for what they call CRAMES, which stands for compressed RAM for
embedded systems.

Other attempts to increase memory usually involve hardware solutions—like simply adding more
memory. What CRAMES does relies only on the operating system software. It basically
compresses some of the data stored in your phone or other electronic device, then decompresses
that data when the data’s needed. Meanwhile, other data not needed at the moment gets
compressed to make room for the data being decompressed. By shuttling various data in and out
of compressed form, the same amount of RAM effectively stores perhaps double the amount of
data. Smartphones featuring the technology have been on sale in Japan since the summer.

September 28, 2007

Nuclear Energy's Next Generation

A new generation of reactors after more than 30 years without a new nuclear plant raises hopes,
opportunities and concerns. David Biello reports. See tinyurl.com/2pb4bc

September 28, 2007 -- Nuclear Energy's Next Generation

(Audio of alarms going off.) It's only a drill at a nuclear reactor. Such simulations train operators
to prevent meltdowns. Such constant training has ensured no repeat of the near disaster at Three
Mile Island. But real problems still happen several times a month at the 104 nuclear reactors in the
U.S. And with plans to build as many as 29 new reactors, that sound may become ever more
common. A nuclear renaissance is under way in the U.S. and abroad as governments look for
reliable, secure and climate-friendly means of generating electricity. Reliable in that nuclear
reactors can generate electricity nearly 90 percent of the time. Secure in that such power plants
rely on fuel found in Australia, Canada and the U.S. And climate-friendly in that generating
electricity from uranium produces less greenhouse gases than burning fossil fuels. But questions
remain, including what to do with the waste. In addition to being radioactive, it contains materials
suitable for nuclear weapons. It remains to be seen whether nuclear is a bright--some might say
glowing—hope or a false alarm. For more on the new nuclear energy, check out www.sciam.com
this week. (See www.tinyurl.com/2pb4bc)

September 27, 2007

Numerous Genomes Include Bacterial Invaders

A survey of genomes of multicellular organisms repeatedly turned up genetic material originating
in bacteria. The new genes may provide immediate new functions. Steve Mirsky reports.
September 27, 2007 -- Numerous Genomes Include Bacterial Invaders

Bacteria commonly swap genes, even if the two tiny critters are only distantly related. For
bacteria to throw some of their genes into multicellular organisms is considered rare—when
bacterial genes are found in genome analysis, they’re often thought to be due to contaminated
samples. But a report in the latest issue of the journal Science finds that what’s called “lateral gene
transfer” may at times not be all that unusual.

The bacteria Wolbachia pipientis infects a wide range of organisms, including about 20 percent of
all insect species. And it’s present in their egg cells. That puts it in a good position to send
genes into its host’s next generation. So researchers examined various host genomes, looking for
genes from Wolbachia. And they found four insect and four nematode species whose genomes
included the bacterial genes. In fact, one Drosophila species’ genome had practically the entire
Wolbachia genome in it. Such lateral gene transfer may be an evolutionary kickstart—the
recipient species instantly gets a package of new genes with potential new functions.

September 26, 2007

Study Finds Diet Indeed Affects Acne

Young men with moderate acne saw their condition improve after following a low-glycemic diet.
Cynthia Graber reports.

September 26, 2007 -- Study Finds Diet Indeed Influences Acne

For decades, dermatologists have said there’s not connection between diet and acne. But many
patients have insisted they do see a link. Slowly, information has been accumulating that shows
the acne sufferers might be right. The latest study was recently published in the Journal of the
American Academy of Dermatology. Australian researchers split 54 young men with moderate
acne into two groups. Half followed a typical Western diet, full of sugar and refined flour, that’s
known as a high-glycemic diet. The other half ate a low-glycemic diet: whole grains, fruits and
vegetables, fish and lean meat. After three months, those on the low-glycemic diet had
significantly fewer bright red bumps.

Researchers say it’s a complex connection. Sugar and white flour lead to insulin spikes. We know
that insulin spikes affect levels of different hormones, and that hormones affect the development
of acne. This hormonal link might be enough to convince any teenager, but scientists say the
diet-acne connection needs further research. Still, it’s one study in favor of diet influencing acne
and another against the typical American diet.

September 25, 2007

Big Consequence of Small Increase in Bat Speed From Steroids
By enabling just a four percent increase in bat speed, steroids may turn hundreds of a season's
long outs into home runs. Steve Mirsky reports.

September 25, 2007 -- Big Consequence of Small Increase in Bat Speed From Steroids

It’s been a fun baseball season. But the storm cloud of steroids has hung over the game for years
now, especially tarnishing Barry Bonds’ assault on the all-time home run record. Tufts
University physicist Roger Tobin is a big baseball fan and recently did some calculations to
evaluate just how much of an impact steroids could actually have on power hitting.

When he crunched the numbers, he found the following: steroids might bring about a 10 percent
increase in muscle mass. That extra muscle could help a batter swing five percent faster. And
that extra bat speed could cause a ball to jump off the bat four percent faster. Doesn’t sound like
much. However, if you add four percent initial velocity to a model distribution of trajectories of
batted baseballs, you can increase homers by a full 50 percent.

Tobin’s research will appear in the American Journal of Physics.He notes that weightlifting and
smaller ballparks also played a role in pumping up the number of home runs. But the power
surge of the ‘90s coincides with steroids more than the other factors.

September 24, 2007

Wrists Insist Hobbit Is Different Species

An analysis of the wrist bones of the Indonesian fossil known as "the hobbit" points to separate
species status, rather than arming those who believe that the tiny human was a diseased Homo
sapiens. Cynthia Graber reports.

September 24, 2007 -- Wrists Insist Hobbit Is Different Species

A few years ago scientists discovered a three-foot skeleton of an early human species on an
Indonesian island. They nicknamed the creature a “hobbit.” But the find left scientists with two
major questions: Do these short, 18,000-year-old bones represent an entirely new human species?
Or is it just someone with a growth disorder? Now the wrist bones may provide an answer.
Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution published an article in the latest issue of Science.
They showed that the hobbit’s wrists are significantly different from both early humans and from
Neanderthals. In fact, the wrists are closer to those of African apes. Wrist bones take shape in early
pregnancy and don’t change much. They’re also particularly distinctive between species.
Scientists believe this shows that an early species in the human line migrated from Africa to Asia.
They evolved into a new species on the Indonesian island. If modern humans and Neanderthals
have a common ancestor, then modern humans and hobbits have a common, well, grand-ancestor.
Making us and hobbits kind of second cousins.

September 21, 2007

Peanut Butter Battles Childhood Malnutrition

A paste made with peanut butter is getting great results in the battle against childhood malnutrition
in sub-Saharan Africa. Karen Hopkin reports.

September 21, 2007 -- Peanut Butter Battles Childhood Malnutrition

Peanut butter: It’s a staple of childhood sandwiches—and a nightmare for parents whose kids have
nut allergies. Now it might also be a cure for hunger in sub-Saharan Africa. Or so say scientists
at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. These researchers have used a
nutrient-rich paste made from peanuts, powdered milk, oil and sugar—spiked with added vitamins
and minerals—to combat starvation in thousands of children in Malawi. Nearly three-quarters of
the kids there are malnourished, and more than 10 percent die from it before the age of 5.

The scientists enlisted village health aides to identify those who needed help. Of the 2,000
severely malnourished children who were given the peanut paste, 89% recovered. That’s far better
than the 50% recovery rate seen in starving kids who are treated with a porridge made of corn or
milk. Probably because peanut butter is packed with protein and calories. A hungry child would
have to eat 25 spoonfuls of porridge to equal the calories in just one glop of peanut paste. Best of
all, the peanut butter is produced locally, does not require cooking and can be administered by
doctor mom.

September 20, 2007

Caloric Restriction May Extend Life But Not Youth

Super-low calorie diets may extend lifespan, but new evidence suggests that age-related declines
continue. Karen Hopkin reports.

September 20, 2007 -- Caloric Restriction May Extend Life But Not Youth

For decades scientists have known that animals on a severely restricted diet live longer than their
gluttonous cousins. If you cut the number of calories you consume by a third you can add about 30
percent to your lifespan—at least if you’re a rat, a worm, or a fly. Sounds easy. But there’s a
catch. Well, a bunch of ‘em, actually. For starters, cutting that many calories—without becoming
malnourished—is a trick that few of us would be able to pull off.

And if that’s not enough, scientists at Virginia Commonweath University in Richmond have
discovered that fruit flies on a restricted diet do live longer—but, unfortunately, they continue to
act their age. As flies grow older, they lose their memory, as well as their ability to walk and to
smell things. And eating less banana mash doesn’t make their lives any sweeter. In the Virginia
researchers’ hands, the calorically challenged, longer-lived flies continued to show age-related
declines in their ability to climb walls and to avoid bad smells, results that appear in the October
issue of the journal Aging Cell. Just something to keep in mind before you decide to pass on the
apple pie a la mode…and pretty much everything else you might be thinking about eating today.

September 19, 2007

TV That Might Be Good For You

A storyline on the show ER may have modestly improved the health habits of some viewers. Steve
Mirsky reports.

September 19, 2007 -- TV That Might Be Good For You

Concerns often crop up over whether people get poor examples from characters on TV shows and
in movies. A big case is actors smoking in films and whether that encourages teens to smoke.
But here’s a rare example of a TV show having what looks like a good influence on healthy habits
among viewers.

Back in the spring, the popular show ER featured a storyline about an African American teenager
who is diagnosed with high blood pressure. The patient gets advised to eat more fruits and
vegetables and to get more exercise. A study just published in the Journal of Health
Communication analyzed whether the dramatic depiction had any effects on the behavior of
viewers who saw the episodes. Over 800 viewers were surveyed. Sixty five percent said the
episodes had inspired them to make positive changes in their habits. The ER viewers also had a
five percent higher knowledge base about nutrition. The researchers say that the study illustrates
the potential of entertainment TV to communicate healthy messages. Especially because those
who watch a lot of TV are more likely to be at risk for obesity.

September 18, 2007

Handwashing Stats Are Good, Could Be Better

The majority of those using public restrooms wash their hands, but large numbers still don't and
the numbers have fallen since the last survey. Steve Mirsky reports.

September 18, 2007 -- Handwashing Stats Are Good, Could Be Better

Washing your hands is an excellent way to lower your risk of infection, especially for colds, flu
and food-borne illnesses. After using the bathroom, most people do indeed appear to wash their
hands. But a lot of people still don’t. That’s the finding of a study sponsored by the American
Society of Microbiology, along with the Soap and Detergent Association. Sure the Soap and
Detergent Association wants to sell soap, but using soap happens to make good sense.

The study had researchers observe the behavior of over 6,000 adults in public restrooms. No
United States Senators were included. The sites were Penn Station and Grand Central Station in
New York, Turner Field in Atlanta, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Shedd Aquarium
in Chicago and the Ferry Terminal Farmer’s Market in San Francisco. Overall, 88 percent of
women and 66 percent of men did wash their hands. But in the last survey two years ago, 90
percent of women and 75 percent of men washed up. So remember, when it comes to illness,
you really can sometimes wash your hands of the whole thing.

September 17, 2007

Male Sweat Can Smell Sweet or Sour To Different Sniffers

Your genetic makeup determines whether an individual man's sweat can smell to you like vanilla,
urine or nothing. Karen Hopkin reports.

September 17, 2007 -- Male Sweat Can Smell Sweet or Sour To Different Sniffers

A smell is a smell is a smell. Cinnamon smells like cinnamon, skunk smells like skunk, and boys
smell like…well, it depends on who you ask. This week, scientists from Rockefeller University
and Duke University announced that a chemical present in high concentrations in the sweat of
men can smell like vanilla, or like urine, depending on the genetic makeup of the person doing the
sniffing.

The discovery happened like this. Researchers at Rockefeller had asked 400 people to assess the
intensity and “pleasantness” of 66 different odors, including androstenone, a chemical in male
sweat. In the meantime, the Duke scientists had discovered that androstenone specifically activates
a smell receptor called OR7D4. So the researchers teamed up. The Rockefeller scientists sent
blood samples from their sniffers to Duke, where researchers then looked at their receptors.

People with one form of the smell receptor find that androstenone smells foul and intense. While
those with a different form detect a hint of vanilla. And some can’t smell it at all. Which might
be a blessing, considering the other options, which are confusing, if not downright offputting.

September 14, 2007

Look At That Face: Improving Automatic Face Recognition

An average of 10 or more photos of a person is easier to match up with a face seen in real life than
is any individual photograph of the person. Steve Mirsky reports. Get a free audiobook at
www.audible.com/science

September 14, 2007 Look At That Face: Improving Automatic Face Recognition

Face recognition software is increasingly important in areas ranging from surveillance to internet
image searches. But research shows that face recognition systems do a poor job matching a face
in a photograph to a face seen in real life. In fact, most people are pretty poor at it, too. Which
is one reason why looking at mugshots can be unreliable. But researchers from the University of
Glasgow have developed a new system that greatly improves the chances of matching a face with
a photo, for both computers and us. They announced their findings this week at the Festival of
Science in York, England.

You know how the occasional photo of you just doesn’t quite look like you? Well, the key to the
new process is to use 10 or 11 different photos of a person and average those together to get a new
image. Such averaging does away with odd effects in an individual shot that could be due to
lighting or just the way you happened to be holding your face. Because your average face is
more recognizably you, even though you’re well above average.

September 13, 2007

Skis That Wax Themselves

British researchers have developed skis that continuously pump small amounts of lubricant to the
surface of a ski, which could lead to faster times. Steve Mirsky reports.

September 13, 2007 -- Skis That Wax Themselves

British scientists have developed skis that wax themselves as you’re skiing. The researchers are
working with ski manufacturers to try to get the self-waxing apparatus into skis in time for use in
international competition as early as next year.

Waxing ski bottoms provides a lubrication effect that keeps the snow from sticking and helps the
skier move faster. But the wax can wear off in the middle of a run. The self-waxing ski includes
a sealed reservoir that holds the lube and is attached to the ski under the front of the foot—it
replaces a small block that’s usually there and that separates the ski binding from the ski. Tiny
valves and a series of tubes continuously deliver new lube to the bottom of the ski. And the
normal motion of the skier’s leg is harnessed to pump the fluid through the system. No batteries
necessary.

Tests in the Alps showed that skiers using the new skis covered a course 1 to 2 percent faster than
on conventional skis, which is huge in a sport where hundredths of a second separate winners
from ski bums.
September 12, 2007

Surplus Parking Places Pose Problems

The huge amount of land devoted to parking lots leads to increased water pollution and the urban
heat island effect. Steve Mirsky reports. Get a free audiobook at www.audible.com/science

September 12, 2007 -- Surplus Parking Places Pose Problems

This is going to come as a shock to anyone who’s spent an hour looking for a place to park in
Manhattan, but we actually probably have a glut of parking spaces in the US. And they have
some unfortunate consequences. That’s according to a study by researchers at Purdue University.
They surveyed the total area devoted to parking in their midsized, Midwestern County. Turned
out that parking spaces outnumbered drivers by three to one. And the total area devoted to
parking spaces at places like big box stores and mega-churches was more than two square miles,
larger than a thousand football fields.

One problem associated with the parking lots is water pollution—oil, grease, sediment and heavy
metals from car batteries collect on the lot surface and then get washed away by rainfall into lakes
and rivers. The parking lots lead to a thousand times the heavy metal runoff that agricultural
land of the same size produces. And parking lots add to the urban heat island effect, whereby
local temperatures might be more than five degrees Fahrenheit higher than in the surrounding
areas.

September 11, 2007

CSI: Eye--Contact Lenses Provide Clues To Infections

Contact lenses are more than twice as likely to provide doctors with samples of the microbes
causing a corneal infection as is the cornea itself. Steve Mirsky reports.

September 11, 2007 -- CSI: Eye-Contact Lenses Provide Clues To Infections

If you ever get an infection of the cornea and you wear contact lenses, save the lenses! They
could help your doctor figure out what medication would be the best bet to cure what ails you.
Wearing contacts is associated with an increased risk of microbial keratitis, or corneal eye
infection. Such an infection can sometimes lead to complications that might threaten your sight.
Doctors will take a scraping from the cornea and then try to identify whatever organisms are
present. But in a study reported in the September issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, only 34
percent of corneal scrapings from contact lens-wearing keratitis patients allowed researchers to
identify the microbes involved. But 70 percent of contact lenses from the affected patients
harbored microbes. The study included 49 patients—with a total of 50 infected eyes—seen at a
hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Said one of the study’s authors, “Contact lens culture may give
a clue regarding the identity of the causative organism in situations in which the corneal scraping
is culture negative, and may help in choosing the appropriate antimicrobial agent.”

September 10, 2007

Extra Genes For Starch Eaters

Humans have different numbers of a gene for digesting starch, probably because starch-eaters who
got more of the genes had an advantage. Karen Hopkin reports.

September 10, 2007 -- Extra Genes For Starch Eaters

You are what you eat. Or so it’s been said. Well it turns out that what we eat has also influenced
who we are. Down to the level of our genes. Researchers at the University of California, Santa
Cruz have found that populations of people who eat a high-starch diet harbor extra copies of a
gene whose product breaks down starch.

Ok, we all learned in high-school biology that genes come in pairs: one copy from mom, one from
dad. In reality, things aren’t always that simple. For some genes we get multiple copies. Such as
the gene for salivary amylase, the enzyme that kicks off the digestion of starch. On average, we
humans have half a dozen copies of that gene. I say “on average” because not everyone has six.
One person could have two, and another could have ten.

What the Santa Cruz scientists discovered is that individuals from populations that eat a lot of
starch—potatoes or corn or rice—skew to the higher-end of that copy number spectrum. And they
credit natural selection: more amylase probably conferred a fitness advantage to those who were
eating starchy foods. Chimps, on the other hand, have only two copies of the amylase gene.
Maybe because they’re not bananas about bread.

September 7, 2007

World Rabies Day Aims At Rabies Awareness

Saturday, September 8th, is World Rabies Day, to raise people's awareness about the
disease--rabies still kills 55,000 people every year. Steve Mirsky reports. For more info, go to
www.worldrabiesday.org

September 7, 2007 -- World Rabies Day Aims At Rabies Awareness

The hair of the dog. It’s a shot of alcohol drunk to stop the headache from all the alcohol drunk
last night. But the phrase hair of the dog was originally related to a far more frightening scenario.
Before Louis Pasteur came up with his rabies inoculation, people bitten by rabid dogs would try to
kill the animal and then literally apply the hair of the dog to the wound. Other attempts to treat
rabies included eating the hair, or heart or liver. Fortunately, Pasteur’s cure now exists, but
55,000 people still die of rabies every year. Saturday, September 8th has been designated as
World Rabies Day, in an attempt to raise awareness about the disease.

Most of the deaths occur in Africa and Asia, and almost half the victims are kids under the age of
15. Most human cases are still from dog bites, with the dogs having picked up rabies from wild
animals, such as bats, skunks or raccoons. The good news is that painful abdominal shots have
been replaced by shots in the arm. For more info, go to worldrabiesday.org.

September 6, 2007

Seeing A Future For Invisibility

Physicists say that it is theoretically possible to design a container that would be invisible, along
with whatever was inside it--even you. Karen Hopkin reports.

September 6, 2007 -- Seeing A Future For Invisibility

I’m sure there’ve been many times when you’ve wished you were invisible. Like when your boss
is looking for “volunteers.” Or when your clueless friend is just begging to be pranked. I don’t
need to know the details.

Well, physicists from Sweden and China have determined that it should be theoretically possible
to design a container that would render its contents totally invisible. This non-magical invisibility
box would be cylindrical in shape and would be made of special “metamaterials” whose intricate
microscopic structure would force light to follow a specified path. If the tube’s wall were the ideal
thickness, the scientists say, light would be guided around it, thus making the container…and
whomever is inside…invisible. To “reappear,” one need only take apart the container…peeling
away the wall of the tube one layer at a time.

Of course a few practical problems still need to be ironed out. First, the scientists haven’t actually
constructed such a chamber. Their analysis, which will appear in the journal Physical Review
Letters, is theoretical, and the column is just a simulation. But perhaps more annoying: the person
inside the container wouldn’t be able to see out. Which would definitely put a crimp in your
elaborate pranking plans, whatever they might be.

September 5, 2007

Diamonds Are A Knee's Best Friend

Diamond-and-ice knees and hips may be the artificial joints of the future. Karen Hopkin reports.

September 5, 2007 -- Diamonds Are A Knee's Best Friend

They say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Well, the same jewel may be particularly useful to
girls who need to have a knee or a hip replaced. Because when it comes to making an artificial
joint that’s built to last, a thin coating of diamond beats titanium or stainless steel hands down. Or
so say physicists at Harvard University in the August issue of a journal called Physical Review E.

The only problem with a diamond-dusted knee might be its biocompatibility. Seems the naked
gem might be a bit too abrasive for use in the body. So the Harvard physicists coated the diamond
with...ice. Yes, the frozen-water kind of ice. The ice layer makes the diamond coating softer and
less abrasive. And because the surface of the diamond layer, sprinkled with a pinch of sodium, is a
perfect fit for the crystalline structure of frozen water, the ice doesn’t melt...even at body
temperature. In some cases it might even remain frozen past water’s normal boiling point, the
physicists predict. Which would mean that a diamond-and-ice encrusted knee should survive even
a John McEnroe style meltdown after a few sets of high-pressure tennis. (Sound clip of McEnroe
melting down: “You cannot be serious! That ball was on the line!”)

September 4, 2007

Rock Stars Get Early Tombstones

North American and European music stars are twice as likely to die prematurely as are members
of the general population. Steve Mirsky reports.

September 4, 2007 -- Rock Stars Get Early Tombstones

We all know smoking is dangerous. But being a smoking hot rock or pop star may be even more
dangerous. Just ask Elvis. Or John Lennon. Or Janis Joplin. Or Jimi Hendrix. Or Buddy
Holly. Or Tupac Shakur.

A study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health looked at more than a thousand
North American and European singers and musicians who became famous between 1956 and 1999.
The researchers found that rock and pop stars are more than twice as likely to die an early death as
the rest of us nobodies. And the first few years after becoming famous are the most dangerous.
Drug and alcohol abuse account for about a quarter of the early deaths.

In all, 100 of the 1050 music stars included in the study were found to die young. The average
age of death for the North Americans was 42. The Europeans only made it to 35. If they can
stay famous for 25 years after their initial stardom, European stars’ death rates become equal to the
general population. But American idols continue to die sooner than regular folks.
All scripts collected by leoozop.