Science News 2001
Here's a list of all the news articles that appeared on Science a GoGo in 2001.
28 December 2001
Controlling Electron Spin Electrically
Researchers demonstrate continuous electrical tunability of spin coherence in semiconductor nanostructures...
19 December 2001
Quantum Computer Solves Problem
A billion-billion custom-designed molecules in a test tube became a seven-qubit quantum computer and solved a mathematical problem at the heart of many cryptographic systems...
16 December 2001
Antarctic Mud Reveals Global Climate Change
Scientists concerned about global warming are especially troubled by dramatic signs of climate change in Antarctica - from rapidly melting glaciers to unexplained declines in penguin populations...
12 December 2001
Strategies To Reduce Global Warming Could Backfire
Blocking the sun may not be such a cool way of counteracting climate change...
9 December 2001
Pollution Disrupting Earth's Water Supply
Particles of human-produced pollution may be playing a significant role in weakening Earth's water cycle, much more than previously realized...
5 December 2001
Antarctic Lakes May Harbor Unique Ecosystems
Liquid lakes buried thousands of meters below the Antarctic ice sheet are likely the home to unique habitats and creatures that thrive in them...
2 December 2001
Stem Cells Turned Into Neurons
Human embryonic stem cells have been changed into nascent brain cells and seeded into the intact brains of baby mice as functioning neural cells...
29 November 2001
One Billion Deaths From Tobacco
Left unchecked, tobacco products will cause up to one billion deaths by the end of the 21st century...
25 November 2001
Stress During Pregnancy Linked To Autism
Women who have had a major stressful event midway through their pregnancy may have a greater chance of having an autistic child...
22 November 2001
Nanoscale Computer Built Using Biological Molecules
A group of scientists has used biological molecules to create a tiny computer - in a test tube...
19 November 2001
New Family of Naturally Occurring Antibiotics Found
Researchers have isolated a previously undiscovered family of naturally occurring peptide antibiotics... in a fish...
14 November 2001
The Puzzle Of Gender-Bending Salmon
Zoologists are sampling more chinook salmon from Northwest rivers this fall in the hope of solving a mystery: are some female chinook really gender bending males?
11 November 2001
Brain Operates Differently In Deception And Honesty
Researchers have found that telling a lie and telling the truth require different activities in the human brain...
8 November 2001
Single Ion Used As A Quantum Probe
Precise control of the interaction of a trapped ion and an optical field provides the basis for single-photon pulses and quantum computation...
4 November 2001
Get A Pet For Better Health
Pets or the presence of animals can have medical benefits ranging from lowering blood pressure to lessening anxiety and depression and even to faster healing times after surgery...
1 November 2001
Electrical Circuits That Assemble Themselves
A study has uncovered a new method of growing microscopic wires that can conduct electricity in a liquid environment...
29 October 2001
Work Pressures Help Strengthen The Immune System
Engaging in stressful tasks like trying to meet a deadline may strengthen the immune system while exposure to stress that must be endured passively - like watching violence on TV - may weaken it...
25 October 2001
Ultrafast X-ray Could Reveal Atoms In Motion
An ultrafast X-ray will enable researchers to follow the movement of constituent atoms, and actually obtain information about the dynamics of molecular motion...
22 October 2001
Lefties Have A Better Memory
Recent experiments indicate that being left-handed tends to make a person better at remembering events...
18 October 2001
Anthrax Just The Beginning
Though the use of anthrax as a bioterrorist weapon is horrifying, it is not nearly as frightening as the threat of attacks using smallpox or the bubonic plague...
16 October 2001
Soy Protein Prevents Skin Tumors
Yet another boost to the healthy reputation of the humble soybean as a study shows that mice with the soy protein lunasin applied to their skin had significantly lower rates of skin cancer...
12 October 2001
Change To Ecosystem Courts Disaster
Subjected to decades of gradual change by humans, many of the world's natural ecosystems - from coral reefs and tropical forests to northern lakes and forests - appear susceptible to sudden catastrophic ecological change...
8 October 2001
Bioengineers Fabricate Cartilage Which Mimics Natural Tissue
UCSD bioengineers have fabricated cartilage tissue which for the first time mimics the multi-layered structure and cellular functions of natural articular cartilage...
5 October 2001
Submicrometer-Scale Metallic Barcodes
Researchers report on the fabrication, optical properties, and initial application of microscopic metallic barcodes...
2 October 2001
Anthrax Immunity Gene Found In Mice
Researchers have identified a mouse gene that, in certain forms, renders mice resistant to anthrax...
27 September 2001
Glass Eating Microbes Found
In the upper 300 meters of the earth's oceanic crust, microbes were found to have literally eaten their way through rock...
24 September 2001
"Fountain Of Youth" Gene Identified
The body's inability to grow new tissue as it ages might be overcome by increasing the activity of a gene known as FoxM1B...
20 September 2001
Gene Transfer In Primates A Success
By successfully inserting a gene from a jellyfish into the fertilized eggs of rhesus monkeys, scientists have managed to make transgenic placentas in which the inserted gene functions as it does in the jellyfish...
17 September 2001
Wealth Of Nations A Matter Of Climate
Why do the rich get richer and the poor stay poor? When it comes to nations, the answers may include frost, according to a study that links economic and climate data...
14 September 2001
Morals Under the Microscope
Combining philosophy and neuroscience, researchers are using brain imaging to explain how emotional reactions and logical thinking interact in moral decision-making...
11 September 2001
Gene For Tolerance Of Heavy Metals Found In An Animal
Biologists have discovered the first biochemical pathway in animals responsible for the detoxification of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and cadmium...
3 September 2001
Surfs Up! Tsunami To Devastate US
A tsunami wave higher than any in recorded history threatens to ravage the US coastline in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands...
30 August 2001
Lung Damage From Ultrasound?
Pumping more energy into a beam of diagnostic ultrasound could produce a better image – and therefore a better diagnosis – but studies suggest the risk of ultrasound-induced lung damage is greater than previously believed...
26 August 2001
Huge Indian Earthquake Due
After exhaustive analysis, a research team believes there are no alternatives to one or more massive earthquakes occurring in India in the near future...
21 August 2001
Smoking May Ease Anger And Anxiety
Anger or anxiety may trigger the urge to smoke in some people. And men are more likely to smoke when they are angry and women are more likely to smoke when they are happy...
18 August 2001
Humans Easiest To Clone?
Humans could be technically easier to clone than sheep, cows, pigs and mice because humans possess a genetic benefit that prevents fetal overgrowth, a major obstacle encountered in cloning animals...
13 August 2001
Genes Passed From Crops To Weeds Persist
Genetic traits passed from crops to their weedy relatives can persist for at least six generations, and probably much longer...
10 August 2001
Distant Quasar Tells Of Universe Origins
Using light from the most distant object known, astronomers have found traces of the first generation of atoms in the universe, 14 billion light years from Earth...
6 August 2001
Mice Immunized Against Alzheimer's
Researchers have prevented the development of Alzheimer's disease in mice genetically engineered with the human gene for the disease using a new vaccine...
31 July 2001
Living Bacteria From Space
Evidence of living bacterial cells entering the Earth's upper atmosphere from space has come from a joint project involving Indian and UK scientists...
26 July 2001
Unmanned Helicopter Breakthrough
Unmanned helicopters are about to become easy to operate and affordable thanks to a new stabilization system...
23 July 2001
Stuttering A Physical Problem Rather Than Emotional
Stuttering has been long thought to be caused by emotional factors, but researchers who studied adults with persistent stuttering found that these individuals had anatomical irregularities in the areas of the brain that control language and speech...
19 July 2001
Form Of Matter Shows Ability To Collapse & Explode
A group of Colorado physicists who made worldwide news in 1995 by creating a new form of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate have developed a new "flavor" of the matter that has been delivering surprise after surprise in the laboratory...
17 July 2001
Testing Einstein's Warped Space
In the most precise astrophysics experiment ever made, Australian and U.S. astronomers have measured the distortion of space-time near a star more than 4 000 million million kilometres from Earth...
13 July 2001
Mystery Of The Shower Curtain Solved
There’s no way to get rid of the daily annoyance of the shower curtain billowing in and sticking to an exposed body part, but there’s now a way to explain the phenomenon...
10 July 2001
Normal Visual Experience Neccesary For Proper Brain Development
Results suggest that visual disabilities affecting both eyes in infants that alter patterns of neural activity in the visual centers of the brain might have an impact on the ongoing development of the visual cortex...
6 July 2001
One Electron Transistor For Molecular Computers
A single electron makes the difference between "on" and "off" for a new transistor made from a single carbon nanotube, whose minute size and low-energy requirements should make it an ideal device for molecular computers...
2 July 2001
Cause & Effect?
The need for a coherent world can cause mistaken memories based on "causal inference" errors, with implications for eyewitness testimony...
28 June 2001
Dueling Software - Computers That Argue
Scientists plan on introducing a "new math" into artificial intelligence that incorporates the ability to argue into computer programs...
24 June 2001
Virus Found To Carry Antibiotic Against E. coli
The antibiotic action of the small virus, "Q Beta", may provide a new approach for designing drugs to combat many serious bacterial diseases...
20 June 2001
Elderly Women Smarter Than Men
Elderly women have a better mental function than men despite their lower level of formal education...
14 June 2001
Spin Moves In Semiconductors
A successful demonstration of spin-transfer makes way for whole new technology of spintronics...
11 June 2001
Selenium Deficiency Causes Flu Virus To Mutate
Influenza virus that has been passed through mice deficient in the trace nutrient selenium mutates and emerges from the mice more virulent than before...
5 June 2001
Planet Formation May Be Rare In Universe
The vast majority of wannabe planets in the universe are likely destroyed by cosmic forces long before they have a chance to evolve from dusty disks circling their parent stars...
31 May 2001
Missing Enzyme Responsible For SIDS?
A missing enzyme may be one possible explanation for cot death or sudden infant death syndrome...
28 May 2001
Stoned On Money
Researchers find that the same neural circuitry is involved in the highs and lows of winning money, abusing drugs, or anticipating a gastronomical treat...
22 May 2001
Clone Problems Identified
The two major problems that continue to plague the field of animal cloning - few clones survive to term, and those that do are grotesquely large - have remained a mystery until now...
17 May 2001
Light Computer Runs At Quantum Speeds
A simple computer that marries the mind-boggling computing power of quantum mechanics with the ease of manipulating light has been built...
14 May 2001
How Did We Get So Smart?
A simple method for analyzing brain anatomy is providing the first reliable measure of how the brains of humans and other mammals are related to one another across evolution...
9 May 2001
Musical Training Boosts Brain Growth
Research has revealed significant differences in the gray matter distribution between professional musicians trained at an early age and non-musicians...
4 May 2001
Light-Driven Micromachines
Using specialized lasers, researchers have devised a way to spin even the most delicate microscopic objects-from a hamster chromosome to a glass bead-without damaging them...
2 May 2001
Molecule Reduces Alzheimer Plaque
Researchers have identified a molecule that could be key to getting the brain's trash-collecting cells, called microglia, back to work...
27 April 2001
Scientific Dumbos
Nearly half the respondents in a survey believed that the earliest humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs...
23 April 2001
Agent Orange Leukemia Link
A new study supports the possibility of an association between Agent Orange and development of a form of leukemia in Vietnam veterans' children...
18 April 2001
Human Brain Loves Surprises
Most people love surprises. Scientists may have discovered why some people actually crave the unexpected...
12 April 2001
Biodiversity Key To Absorbing CO2
Biodiversity is an important factor regulating how ecosystems will respond to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, say researchers...
7 April 2001
Reversal Of Snell's Law Verified
A composite material constructed by UCSD physicists bends electromagnetic radiation in the opposite direction to normal materials, it is unique in possessing a negative index of refraction...
2 April 2001
Memory Makes Sight Possible
What the eye sends to the brain are mere outlines of the visual world. The brain interprets this sparse information, probably merging it with images from memory, to create the world we know...
1 April 2001
"Light Bricks" Set To Save Electricity
Californian utility companies are set to import new hi-tech plastic bricks that absorb and then radiate light for distribution to consumers to help offset the drain on electricity supplies...
25 March 2001
"Missing Mass" Of Galaxy Consists Of Dying Stars
Researchers calculate that if dim stellar remnants are spread evenly throughout the galactic halo then they could account for as much as 35 percent of the dark matter in the galaxy...
19 March 2001
Answering One Of Water’s Basic Mysteries
We drink it. We bathe in it. It’s part of our everyday life, but the driving force behind one of the fundamental properties of water, its pH, has defied explanation for decades...
13 March 2001
Learning Uranium Containment From Nature
Three decades ago, possibly one of the richest uranium deposits in the US was discovered in Virginia. Although the deposit was considered for mining, it was never developed. However, this site may yield knowledge of great value as a natural laboratory for radioactive waste containment...
10 March 2001
Prion Yields Clues to Infection Across Species Barriers
Stitching together segments of two species of infectious yeast proteins may be a key to understanding how prions derived from cows infected with "mad cow disease," can hop the species barrier and infect humans...
6 March 2001
New Ideas About Technology And Evolution
Paleoanthropologist Stanley Ambrose challenges conventional wisdom about Paleolithic technology and hammers out a set of new hypotheses about our evolutionary odyssey...
1 March 2001
Alzheimer's Reversible
Lab mice bred to develop the notorious plaques of Alzheimer's disease had a majority of their plaques disappear 3 to 8 days after treatment with anti-plaque antibodies...
25 February 2001
Method Found To 'Purify' Partially Entangled States
Entanglement is an essential component in many quantum information processing applications, such as quantum computation, teleportation and cryptography. But the connection between the particles can become "noisy" or "dirty," degrading the quality of the entanglement...
20 February 2001
Artificial Language Used To Study Language Learning
New evidence shows that babies learning to understand language rely more heavily than previously thought on patterns in the language they hear...
18 February 2001
Human Gut Breeding Ground For Antibiotic Resistance
Bacteria in your gut could be exchanging genetic material, including antibiotic resistance genes, with bacteria that are simply passing through on your food...
13 February 2001
Extra Dimensions Must Be Smaller Than 0.2 Millimeter
Scientists using gravity measurements to hunt for evidence of dimensions in addition to those already known have found that those dimensions would have to occupy a space smaller than 0.2 millimeter...
10 February 2001
Possible Violation Of Standard Model Of Particle Physics
Scientists today announced an experimental result that directly confronts the so-called Standard Model of particle physics. "This work could open up a whole new world of exploration for physicists interested in new theories"...
6 February 2001
Biologists Transform Leaves Into Petals
Biologists have discovered how to genetically convert leaves into petals, an achievement that may be the botanical equivalent of the medieval alchemists' dream of transmuting iron into gold...
1 February 2001
What The Universe Is Made Of
In the most accurate picture yet of the makings of our universe, astronomers have determined that a measly 5 percent of its mass comes from the ordinary matter that makes up planets, stars and gases...
27 January 2001
Societal Collapse Caused By Climate Change
Contrary to common beliefs, societal collapses of the past have been caused by sudden climate change, rather than social, political and economic factors...
22 January 2001
Personality Influences Immune System
Individuals may vary in how well they can protect themselves from illness, depending on personality traits as well as on physiological differences, suggest the results of a preliminary study...
16 January 2001
Drug for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Not Effective
Fludrocortisone, has little or no effect on symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome in adults when it is used as the only form of treatment...
12 January 2001
Me Tarzan, You Genetically Modified
A baby monkey carrying an extra bit of DNA may suggest a way to speed new treatments for a host of disabling human conditions...
9 January 2001
Earth To Mars In Two Weeks
Scientists at Ben-Gurion University have shown that an unusual nuclear fuel could speed space vehicles from Earth to Mars in as little as two weeks...
4 January 2001
Prof Says Science Textbooks Full Of Errors
An examination of science textbooks has found texts that incorrectly state Newton’s first law of motion and show the equator passing through the southern United States...