News of the Week
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News of the Week

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE:
Judge Rejects Cancer Data in Maryland Cell Phone Suit

Mark Parascandola

A Baltimore federal judge has effectively scuttled the arguments behind an $800 million lawsuit brought by a man who claims he got a brain tumor from using a cell phone. Last week's ruling by U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake is seen as a major setback for those claiming that cell phones can damage health.

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BACTERIAL MENINGITIS:
Appeal to Thwart Deadly Outbreak

Gretchen Vogel

Fearing a repeat appearance of a rare strain of bacterial meningitis that killed 1500 people last year in Africa, the World Health Organization last week issued an urgent plea to drugmakers to make an effective vaccine against strain W135 available at reduced cost. If a major outbreak of W135 were to strike this winter, officials say there would not be enough vaccine doses available at any price.

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HERPETOLOGY:
100 Frogs A-Leaping for Biodiversity

Elizabeth Pennisi

While other herpetologists have been scrambling to understand why amphibians are declining worldwide, one research team has been cataloging more than 100 new species, all from one postage stamp of a rain forest in Sri Lanka. The discovery of this biodiversity hot spot, reported on page 379 of this issue, increases the number of known frog species on the island fivefold.

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TOXICOLOGY:
Protecting Liver From Painkiller's Lethal Dose

Jean Marx

Overdoses of the painkiller acetaminophen can cause severe, sometimes fatal liver damage. New results, reported on page 422 of this issue, help explain just how acetaminophen harms the liver. They may also provide a target for treating liver failure due to overdoses of acetaminophen and perhaps of other drugs as well.

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PHYSICS:
Quantum Experiment Asks 'How Big Is Big?'

Charles Seife

In the realm of the very small, physics goes wild. The laws of quantum mechanics allow objects such as atoms and photons to be in two places at once and break other common-sense rules. Now three physicists plan to build the largest quantum-mechanical object yet--one big enough to push the realm of quantum weirdness across the border of everyday life.

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SWITZERLAND:
Compromise Allows Transgenic Trials

Min Ku

BERN--Swiss biologists believe they have won a decisive victory in a 9-year battle with campaigners opposed to genetically modified (GM) organisms. Last week the National Council, the lower house of the Swiss parliament, voted to accept watered-down legislation governing gene technology. To the relief of researchers, the council deleted measures that would restrict research and impose a 5-year moratorium on commercial release of GM organisms.

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ASTRONOMY:
New Results Reawaken Quasar Distance Dispute

Govert Schilling

Two groups of researchers last week sought to deliver separate killer blows to a controversial theory which holds that quasars are not very distant and extremely bright, but are actually quite nearby and their large redshifts have some other cause. Instead, the teams seem to have simply stirred up the same old hornets' nest.

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YOUNG INVESTIGATORS:
European Program to Fund the Best

Erica Goldman

European research officials are hatching a bold scheme to attract young scientists--provided that they agree to work in one of the participating countries. Details of the new European Young Investigator Awards, which are expected to provide 5-year, $1.5 million grants, will be worked out later this month at a meeting in Athens.

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News Focus

MICROBIOLOGY:
The Science of Pfiesteria: Elusive, Subtle, and Toxic

Jocelyn Kaiser

Ever since it was blamed for massive fish kills in estuaries in the eastern United States a decade ago, a tiny one-celled organism known as Pfiesteria piscicida has fascinated and horrified the public. This dinoflagellate has been accused of slaying more than a billion fish and, in a superaggressive mode, releasing a potent neurotoxin that has sickened fishers and lab workers. It is also at the center of a raging scientific debate.

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MICROBIOLOGY:
Pfiesterian Lifestyle: Simple or Complex?

Jocelyn Kaiser

One amazing--and, to some observers, incredible--aspect of Pfiesteria's biology is its 24-stage life cycle, including amoeboid forms. Now a recent study directly challenges this claim, concluding that Pfiesteria's life cycle is much simpler.

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SOLAR SYSTEM FORMATION:
The First Rocks Whisper of Their Origins

Richard A. Kerr

For centuries, meteoriticists excelled at squeezing information out of rocks but had less success explaining what the information implied about the history of the solar system. Now meteorites are starting to tell their story more clearly. New findings reported in recent months hint that they do indeed preserve a record of the solar system's formation--a record that scientists are starting to interpret with the help of astrophysical models.

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MICROBIOLOGY:
Domino Effects From Battles Against Microbes

Jon Cohen

Some of the most groundbreaking studies presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy last month emphasized that successes in the eternal battle against microscopic bugs often have far-reaching domino effects. An antiviral medication that eases the symptoms of genital herpes might also prevent transmission of the virus that causes it. Another analysis pushed for immunizing all infants against the influenza virus. In one negative consequence of widespread vaccinations, however, protecting children against chickenpox might make their grandparents' generation more susceptible to a malady caused by the same virus.

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PROFILE: DENNY MORE:
Learning to Speak the Amazon's Languages

Bill Hinchberger

Of the estimated 1200 languages spoken in the Amazon Basin 500 years ago, at least three-quarters have disappeared. Many of the remaining languages are spoken by 50 or fewer individuals. Linguist Denny Moore is recording these endangered languages. He and his team also hope to reconstruct the extinct language from which some of the modern versions evolved.

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WOMEN IN SCIENCE:
Can Equality in Sports Be Repeated in the Lab?

Jeffrey Mervis

A 30-year-old federal education law caused participation in sports by women to skyrocket. Last week a panel of scientists and women activists told the U.S. Senate that Title IX could also help the next generation of women scientists and engineers in academia, although a Department of Education official said that it already has improved the status of women.

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ORNITHOLOGY:
High-Flying Science Seeks to Reduce Toll at Towers

David Malakoff

After years of debate about how best to reduce massive bird kills around utility and communications towers, researchers are starting to receive funding to investigate solutions that will help the avian population without hampering a rapidly expanding industry.

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