ScienceShots: July 2006

• Cosmic rainbow. The brightest object in the universe is showing its colors thanks to combined images from NASA's three space telescopes. In a photo released 21 July, a jet of high-speed particles shoots from the first known quasar, 3C273, which was discovered in 1963. The jet stretches 100,000 light-years, the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy. The colors represent X-rays (blue) recorded by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, visible light (green) imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, and infrared (red) captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Yale University)
• Bring it on! Like a gang of hoodlums that finds strength in numbers, ants are more likely to be aggressive if they are part of a large pack. A new study of Formica xerophila ants shows that when females perceive themselves to be part of a large group, they are more likely to attack a competing band of ants, even if both groups are the same size. The aggressive juices also appear to make F. xerophila better fighters than ants who travel with a smaller crew, researchers report online 19 July in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. (Photo: Colby J. Tanner)
• Crystal vision. The cornea is one of the few tissues not networked with blood vessels--otherwise, it would be awfully hard to see through. So what keeps it clear? In the online 18 July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that healthy corneas are coated with VEGFR-3--a protein that appears to stunt blood vessel growth. The team predicts that some day this protein may be used to treat ocular disorders and shrink tumors fed by rapidly growing blood vessels. (Photo: Corbis Royalty Free)
• Avalanche. The face of one of Switzerland's most famous mountains is poised to tumble, and it appears climate change is to blame. A long crack on the eastern face of Eiger Mountain has been widening more than 80 centimetres a day, and scientists predict that 2 million cubic meters of rock will ultimately fall onto the Grindelwald glacier below. (A quarter of that total collapsed in a 15-minute avalanche on 13 July.) Geologists say the rapid retreat of the glacier has removed support that had stabilized the rock. In the 15 July issue of Geophysical Research Letters, researchers predict that if global temperatures rise by 5 degrees Celsius, the Alps could be ice-free by the end of the century. (Photo: Pascal Lauener/Reuters)
• Twists and turns. The double helix still has some surprises left. Tug gently on its ends and it twists up tighter, rather than unwinding like most twisted materials such as old-fashioned candy wrappers or a coiled piece of wire. DNA strands gently pulled at each end with magnetic tweezers wind up tighter by 0.1% for every 1% increase in stretch force, researchers report online 13 July in Nature. Above 30 piconewtons, though, the strands loosen. The authors suggest that this property could have important implications for how DNA-binding proteins twist and stretch DNA in order to attach properly. (Photo: Jason Reed/Getty Images)
• Labyrinth. Standing out like a rocky wasteland from its stark surroundings, this 50-kilometer-long maze of canyons in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, has long been a mystery. Now, by analyzing sediment and volcanic ash found on top of the formation, geologists have learned that massive floods carved the channels between 12 million and 14 million years ago. Reporting in the July issue of Geology, researchers speculate the water originated beneath an enormous sheet of ice that was making its way to the sea. Enough meltwater may have drained into the Southern Ocean to disrupt ocean circulation and trigger abrupt climate change, the team reports. (Photo: David Marchant)

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