Новости науки и техники в "Scientific American" 18.XII.2001

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STUDY FINDS SMOKING IN MOVIES TIED TO ADOLESCENT TOBACCO USE

According to a new study, when it comes to smoking, adolescents may be emulating the movie stars they see on the big screen. Writing in the December 15 issue of the British Medical Journal, researchers at Dartmouth College report that they have found a link between tobacco use in movies and smoking among young people.

GENE THERAPY CORRECTS SICKLE CELL DISEASE IN MICE

More than four decades after the mutation that causes sickle cell disease was first identified, researchers have finally taken a major step toward treating the blood disorder. According to a report published in the journal Science, a novel gene therapy method prevents the characteristic deformation, or sickling, of red blood cells in mice.

ODDBALL SUPERCONDUCTOR VIOLATES THEORY OF ELECTRON BEHAVIOR

A new study suggests that one kind of high-temperature superconductor violates a 150-year-old law of solid state physics. The Wiedemann- Franz law predicts that at low temperatures, metals should conduct both heat and electricity well. But now physicists have found that the heat and charge in a copper oxide-based superconductor each follow different paths near absolute zero.

SHIMMYING STAR MAY SHED LIGHT ON FORCES AT WORK IN THE SUN

Astronomers have observed for the first time a star doing the stellar version of the twist, according to a new report. Andrew Collier Cameron of Scotland's University of Saint Andrews, along with a colleague, found that the difference between the rotation rates of the equator and poles of a fast-spinning star called AB Doradus (AB Dor) changed over time: after the poles sped up, the equator slowed down.

RACISM NOT HARDWIRED, SCIENTISTS SAY

In recent years a number of studies have reached the same thorny conclusion about human cognition: when encountering a person for the first time, our brains automatically make note of the individual's race. But new research indicates that this is not necessarily the case, suggesting that racism may be an erasable by-product of cognitive adaptations that evolved to detect coalitions and alliances.

BOOK OF THE MONTH: DARWIN, HIS DAUGHTER, AND HUMAN EVOLUTION by Randal Keynes

When descendants of Charles Darwin get together, some still tell the story of a long-ago servant who expressed pity for the family patriarch. The poor man, she said, was so idle that she saw him staring at an ant heap for a whole hour. Darwin's full-time, self-created job, of course, was to observe every animate creature, from the ants and bees in his garden, to giant tortoises in the Galбpagos, to his own family. He even published a monograph on the behavior of his infant children.

ASK THE EXPERTS:  IS 24K GOLD PURE? IF NOT, WHAT IS IT A MIXTURE OF?

Francis H. Brown, professor of geology and Dean of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences at the University of Utah, replies.