Новости науки и техники в "Scientific American" 5 февраля 2002 г.

BOOKSTORE:

• TELEVISION AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE:
  HOW VIEWING SHAPES EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE by Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

  Explore the latest research on the role of television in everyday life.

• TUNING IN TO YOUNG VIEWERS:
  SOCIAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVES ON TELEVISION Edited by Tannis M. MacBeth.

  Seven essays by scholars debate television's influence on the psychological and social development of children.

STEM CELLS COAXED FROM UNFERTILIZED PRIMATE EMBRYOS

Ethical concerns over human stem cell research could be circumvented if the cells came from embryos produced through parthenogenesis, a process by which unfertilized eggs undergo embryonic development. Because human parthenotes cannot develop into viable fetuses, so the argument goes, harvesting stem cells from them does not pose ethical problems. To that end, new research marks an important advance.

PHYSICISTS FINE-TUNE PREDICTED SOLAR NEUTRINO PRODUCTION RATE

Chargeless, nearly massless and rarely seen interacting with matter, neutrinos have proved exasperatingly difficult to study. For more than three decades, efforts to count these elusive subatomic particles yielded less than half the number the sun was thought to manufacture. Physicists finally solved the so-called solar neutrino problem last year. Now they are sharpening some of their calculations.

HIGHER IQ MAY PROTECT SOLDIERS FROM POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

Military troops currently deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom face explicit dangers on the battlefield. But they may face a more insidious danger - post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - in the years to come. Characterized by flashbacks that replay traumatic events, an avoidance of reminders of an ordeal or a hyperalert state, the condition was first diagnosed as shell-shock after World War I. Now new research suggests that higher IQ may help shield soldiers from PTSD.

JAGUAR CONSERVATION WILL REQUIRE INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

To the ancient Mayans, Aztecs, Incas and other Pre-Columbian peoples, the jaguar reigned supreme. But times, it seems, have changed. According to a new report, the cat now faces considerable threats across much of it historic dominion, owing to poaching, habitat loss and competition with humans for prey.

RESEARCHER PINPOINTS CAUSE OF KING HEROD'S DEATH

Medical detective work has now revealed what most likely killed Herod the Great - more than 2,000 years after his death. According to the Bible, the tyrannical ruler of ancient Judea ordered numerous executions during his reign - including those of countless newborn males during the infamous Slaughter of the Innocents - but the cause of his own demise long eluded scholars. New findings suggest that Herod succumbed to a chronic kidney disease and an unusual genital infection.

ASK THE EXPERTS: IF T. REX FELL, HOW DID IT GET UP,
GIVEN ITS TINY ARMS AND LOW CENTER OF GRAVITY?

Paleontologist Gregory M. Erickson of Florida State University explains how, in his words, a 5-ton teeter-totter gets up.