Science News - December 31, 2011

Say What?

Vitamer \VITE-ah-mer\ n. One of several related chemical compounds that act as a vitamin. What is commonly known as vitamin B1 — the immune system booster found in pork, legumes and brewer’s yeast — is really four different vitamers. In some cases, certain vitamers act as more potent vitamins than others. An international team has developed a new way to inventory the B1 vitamer content of alcoholic beverages. Using 204 beers picked from the 2010 Australian International Beer Awards, the scientists compared vitamer counts of lagers, ales, wheat beers, stouts and porters. Lagers scored lowest, possibly because they were pasteurized, the team reports online November 7 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. — Allison Bohac

SN Online www.sciencenews.org

BODY & BRAIN Some U.S. presidents go gray in four years, but they still tend to live longer than average. See “Presidency not a death sentence.” A program in Nepal enlisting motorbike owners as emergency transport saves the lives of people bitten by snakes. Read “Scooters save lives of snakebite victims.”

Science Past | DECEMBER 30, 1961

EARTH AND PLANETS FORMED FROM DUST DRAWN TO
SUN — The Earth and all the other planets of the solar
system were formed from tiny dust particles accumulat-
ing around the sun as it passed through a vast dust cloud
in space. This theory on the origin of the
solar system was proposed in London
by Prof. R.A. Lyttleton of Cambridge
University, Cambridge, England.... The
sun must have passed through several
hundred if not thousands of dust clouds
during its lifetime of several billion years.

During one of these encounters, the sun’s speed relative to the cloud must have slowed down to a little more than a mile a second in order to accumulate the necessary amount of dust for later planet formation.

The (-est)

Cicadas have officially been around long enough to have serenaded dinosaurs with their distinctive buzz. The newly discovered Burmacicada protera is the oldest definitive cicada fossil ever found, beating the previous contender by over 50 million years. Entomologists George Poinar and Gene Kritsky report in an upcoming

Historical Biology that the amber encasing the specimen dates to the early Cretaceous, about 110 million years ago. Cicadas haven’t changed much since:

B. protera sports forelegs shaped
much like those of its modern
counterparts. — Allison Bohac

Science Future

January 6–February 17 See ;ve science and nature ;lms on a 90-foot domed screen at the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Omnifest. Visit www.smm.org/omnifest

January 19 The St. Louis Science Center hosts a science café event to discuss space travel. See bit.ly/SNsltravel

GENES & CELLS

Tiny hairlike appendages on cells can sequester a protein involved in regulating appetite. Read “Cilia control eating signal.”

Istanbul
9 million
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DENIS TABLER/SHUTTERS TOCK; NICOLAS BERBARI AND BRADLE Y YODER; GEOATLAS/GRAPHI-OGRE, ADAPTED B Y PAUL CLEMENTS; G. POINAR

February 4 The Maryland Science Center introduces a hands-on insect exhibit. See bit.ly/SNmdinsect

MOLECULES Cosmetics and other compounds wafting off tourists’ skin threaten a masterpiece. See “Saving the Last Supper.”

Science Stats | GLOBAL QUAKE RISKS

The earthquake that struck Japan this year was unusual —at magnitude 9.0, it was one of the strongest ever recorded — but many other cities (shown, with populations) lie in active seismic zones located near faults or along the boundaries of tectonic plates. Cities in seismic zones