Science in the News Weekly is a digest of science news stories appearing in the mainstream media. It is delivered every Monday afternoon (or Tuesday afternoon in the case of a Monday holiday) as part of Sigma Xi's public understanding of science program area, in conjunction with American Scientist magazine.

Science at the Top of the News for November 9-13

Diet and nutrition were at the top of the news last week. A report on the unhealthy aspects of fruit juice was the most viewed article last week by subscribers to Science in the News Daily. The other top news items concerned the role that bacteria play in weight gain and a study on the effects of a low-carb diet on mood. Subscribe now for free daily updates.

2012 Doomsday Myth Sparks Widespread Fear

Many people are worried about an apocalypse in 2012 purportedly predicted by the Mayan calendar, according to a report by National Geographic News. Survival kits, documentaries, a movie and nearly 200 books are helping to fuel the anxiety.

Meanwhile, researchers have discovered what is being described as a "missing link" dinosaur skeleton that could link the earliest dinosaurs with the large plant-eating sauropods.

And scientists said an asteroid that collided with the Earth almost 2 billion years ago, in what is known as the Sudbury impact, may have stirred the seas worldwide and delivered a huge amount of oxygen to the deep ocean.

'A Long, Long Steady Climb Back ... From the Brink of Extinction'

Last week brought good news in the field of conservation. In the U.S., the brown pelican was removed from the endangered species list, and scallops appear to be making a comeback in the waters off Long Island. Meanwhile, giraffes have made a surprising comeback in West Africa.

In other environmental news, American botanists are sending teams out across the Midwest and West to collect seeds from different populations of prairie species. The goal is to preserve and perhaps even help establish them in new areas.

Keeping an eye on plants species will soon be easier now that a new "DNA barcode" has been adopted by an international group of scientists. Among other things, the technology will help to identify plants in the illegal trade in endangered species.

Some researchers estimate that garbage now pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.

And Peruvians pose what might be a final challenge to the fragile ecosystem supported by the huarango tree near their country's southwestern coast. Villagers are cutting down the last of these once vast forests for charcoal and firewood.

Astronomy: Lunar Water, the Origin of Life, Sailing on Light

There is more water on the moon than many scientists suspected, according to a report last week from NASA on results from a mission in October that sent a probe crashing into a crater near the moon's south pole.

In other space news, astronomers said last week that a low abundance of lithium in the atmosphere of stars could be a chemical marker indicating which ones are most likely to host planets.

And the Vatican held a five-day conference that brought together astronomers, physicists, biologists and other scientists to discuss the origin of life and its possible existence elsewhere in the universe.

The New York Times reported on a project to deploy a spacecraft that will "sail" on light, much as the ships of early explorers were powered by the wind.

And, finally, astronomers reported that a remote star explosion witnessed in 2002 might be the first proof of a new class of supernova. The explosion occurred 160 million light-years from Earth.

Higgs Meditations, the Semantic Web, Nanoparticles

New Scientist looked at what detection of the Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle," by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) would mean for the standard model of particle physics. The LHC is expected to be operational "any day now."

In other technology news, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, set to open this month, relies on the latest multi-media to give visitors an "immersive experience" of that war.

Meanwhile, the idea of a more intuitive "Semantic Web" has gotten a boost thanks to recent funding by the National Science Foundation of software expected to enhance access by researchers to the information they want.

ScienceNOW Daily News reported on criticism of a new study that found that nanoscale materials, used in everything from medical imaging to cancer treatment, can damage genetic material in our bodies. The study has little relevance to human exposure risks, experts say.

The Role of Judgment in Medical Decision-Making

Once science determines whether a medical treatment works, the next questions—when to use it and on which patients—become matters of judgment, not measurement. Some doctors are trying to inject more science into the decision-making process.

In other biomedical news, British researchers reported progress in the lab against the deadliest form of lung cancer. They've found a drug that destroys tumors in mice by blocking the growth of cancer cells and eventually causing them to self-destruct.

Last week the medical use of marijuana was endorsed by the American Medical Association, which urged the federal government to reconsider its classification as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use. The group reportedly hopes to clear the way to conduct clinical research and develop cannabis-based medicines.

A study involving Chinese factory workers found that exposure to high levels of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), found in many everyday plastic products, appeared to cause erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems.

An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of the domestic horse, which has implications for human health. "Horses suffer from more than 90 hereditary diseases that show similarities to those in humans," the BBC noted.

Nobrow Cartoons by Mark Heath

Nobrow Cartoons

About Sigma Xi

Founded in 1886, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, is a nonprofit membership society of approximately 60,000 scientists and engineers who were elected to the Society because of their research achievements or potential. Sigma Xi has more than 500 chapters at universities and colleges, government laboratories and industry research centers. In addition to publishing American Scientist, Sigma Xi awards grants annually to promising young researchers, holds forums on critical issues at the intersection of science and society and sponsors a variety of programs supporting honor in science and engineering, science education, science policy and the public understanding of science.

For more information about the benefits of membership, visit the Sigma Xi Web site.

Need assistance? Please write to us at enews@americanscientist.org.