Summaries | Headlines

Lyme Disease Cases More Than Double Since 1991 (June 28, 2007) -- Reported cases of Lyme disease have more than doubled since 1991, when Lyme became a nationally notifiable disease, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The ... > full story

Biologists Unravel The Genetic Secrets Of Black Widow Spider Silk (June 14, 2007) -- Biologists have identified the genes, and determined the DNA sequences, for two key proteins in the "dragline silk" of the black widow spider -- an advance that may lead to a variety of new materials ... > full story

Venomous Brown Widow Spiders Making Themselves Known In Louisiana (May 13, 2007) -- A dangerous spider is making itself known to Louisiana residents. The brown widow spider is becoming more common in the state of Louisiana, according to ... > full story

Old-Time Mosquito Remedy May Work Against Ticks, Too (May 10, 2007) -- A granddad's wisdom, already helpful in the fight against mosquitoes, may also prove useful in battling disease-spreading ... > full story

Treating Ticks With Antibiotics Inhibits Their Reproduction (May 8, 2007) -- Bacteria that may provide ticks with essential nutrients they can't get from their meals of blood could be a key to controlling ticks and the diseases they carry, such as Lyme ... > full story

Female Ticks Have Market On Gluttony (April 29, 2007) -- Sex makes you fat. If you're a female tick, that is. The "truly gluttonous" female ixodid tick increases her weight an astounding 100 times her original size after she mates, so scientists ... > full story

Lyme Disease Vaccine Proteins Patented (April 10, 2007) -- Scientists have received a US Patent for developing chimeric, or "combination," proteins that may advance the development of vaccines and diagnostic tests for Lyme ... > full story

Fascinating Spider Silk (April 6, 2007) -- Spider silk would be an ideal material for a large variety of medical and technical applications, and researchers are thus interested in learning the spiders' secrets and imitating their technique. ... > full story

Why Are There So Many More Species Of Insects? Because Insects Have Been Here Longer (April 4, 2007) -- Scientists show that many insect groups like beetles and butterflies have fantastic numbers of species because these groups are so old. In contrast, less diverse groups, like mammals and birds, are ... > full story

A Rarity Among Arachnids, Whip Spiders Have A Sociable Family Life (March 13, 2007) -- Whip spiders, considered by many to be creepy-crawly, are giving new meaning to the term touchy-feely. In two species of whip spiders, or amblypygids, mothers caress their young with long feelers, ... > full story

Wolves, Moose Struggling On Isle Royale National Park, USA (March 12, 2007) -- A plague of ticks, stifling hot summers and relentless pressure from wolves have driven the moose population on Isle Royale National Park to its lowest ebb in at least 50 years. Their numbers have ... > full story

Spiders: Chastity Belts Protect Paternity (March 5, 2007) -- The fact that female wasp spiders have numerous sexual contacts is something which their male partners cannot prevent. What they can do, however, is ensure that no offspring ensue from these liaisons ... > full story

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Radical Evolution : The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human
In Radical Evolution, bestselling author Joel Garreau, a reporter and editor for the Washington Post, shows us that we are at an inflection point in history. As you read this, we are engineering the ... > read more

Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
In this new edition, Lester Brown outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first civilization.The world faces numerous environmental trends of disruption and decline such as rising ... > read more

A Million Little Pieces
News from Doubleday & Anchor Books The controversy over James Frey's A Million Little Pieces has caused serious concern at Doubleday and Anchor Books. Recent interpretations of our previous ... > read more

Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports
Fascinating and factual accounts of the world's most recentand compelling crashes Industry insiders James Walters and Robert Sumwalt, trained aviation accident investigators and commercial airline ... > read more

Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster
What Hurricane Katrina reveals about the fault lines of race and poverty in America-and what lessons we must take from the flood-from best-selling "hip-hop intellectual" Michael Eric Dyson Does ... > read more

High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
The most impressive idea to emerge from the recent World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland: a new approach to identifying and managing the world's twenty most pressing problems. In this age of ... > read more

Healthy Black Hair: Step-by-Step Instructions for Growing Longer, Stronger Hair
Healthy Black Hair-step-by-step instructions for growing longer, stronger hair is not just another hair care book. Although chock full of styling and hair care tips, it includes a complete hair care ... > read more

Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel
Be very, very afraid. When you step through your door for an innocent excursion, grave danger awaits. You might be mugged; tied up; attacked by scorpions, piranhas, or tarantulas; trapped in a ... > read more

My Life as a Quant : Reflections on Physics and Finance
Emanuel Derman was one of the first physicists to move to Wall Street, and his career paralleled the growth of quantitative trading over the past twenty years. In My Life as a Quant , he traces his ... > read more

Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics : An Introduction (Statistics for Biology and Health)
Advances in computers and biotechnology have had a profound impact on biomedical research, and as a result complex data sets can now be generated to address extremely complex biological questions. ... > read more