Brief Points, June 2005

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Mice with a disrupted circadian rhythm gene overeat and develop problems related to obesity, suggesting that in mammals the 24-hour clock cycle is finely tuned to metabolic functions. Science Express, April 21
Elderly nursing-home residents often are not given sleeping pills, for fear that the compounds will increase the risk of falls. Ironically, a study finds that insomnia itself, not sleep medication, predicts future falls. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, March 30 online
Soft organic tissue apparently survived in a fossilized leg bone of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex—a surprise because organic molecules should last only 100,000 years. If truly original tissue, the material may hold recoverable genetic data. Science, March 25
Farmed salmon seem able to spread potentially lethal parasitic sea lice to wild cousins more readily than previously thought—sometimes out to 30 kilometers from a farm only 200 meters long. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, March 30

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American