UPI Science Writer
From the Science & Technology Desk
Published 10/25/2001 12:04 AM

Oct. 24 (UPI) -- ARCTIC BIRDS BREEED ON THE FLY

Wading birds that breed in the Arctic rely on local food sources to make their eggs, according to a report in this week's edition of the journal Nature. The finding goes against common wisdom, which held that the very short breeding season in the far northern reaches would force birds to stock up on nutrition before they began the migration north. Not so, according to Marcel Klaassen of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology. Klaassen's team tracked the chemical composition of the eggs, and found that they bore the signature of invertebrates living on the arctic tundra. That implies that the birds arrive at the breeding grounds in Spring and only then begin to manufacture their eggs. The researchers conclude that the cost of carrying the extra food stores from the wintering grounds must outweigh the possible benefits to the birds of being able to lay as soon as they reach their summer homes.

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ULTRAFAST X-RAY PULSES COULD REVEAL ATOMS IN MOTION

A new ultrafast switch for X-rays could allow researchers to view the movement of individual atoms, according to a report in this week's edition of the journal Science. A team of researchers from the University of Michigan department of physics used an ultrafast laser source, which acts as a hammer on the surface of a crystal, generating an extraordinarily rapid acoustic pulse. The end result is that energy gets channeled from one pattern into another, acting as a sort of X-ray shutter. The work "opens an entirely new chapter in controlling the time structure of hard X-rays," wrote Ferenc Krausz and Christian Spielmann of the Vienna University of Technology in an accompanying article. "The X-ray switch is a versatile tool that could be added to nearly every beam line without having to touch the source...such ultrafast switches could become a key component in the X-ray toolbox for probing the structural dynamics of matter."

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ODYSSEY ARRIVES SAFELY TO MARS ORBIT

On Tuesday evening, the NASA engineers issued a collective sigh of relief as the Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully completed a 20-minute thruster burn that put it into orbit around the red planet. The success comes on the heels of recent high-profile Mars mission failures. Mars Odyssey will be the key communications link for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, set to arrive in 2003. "Everything went perfectly, and this is fabulous news for the Rover program," said Cornell professor of astronomy Steven W. Squyres, who has a leading role in both NASA's Odyssey and Rover missions. If the engines hadn't fired as planned, the spacecraft would have been lost, and the only backup available is the aging Global Surveyor spacecraft, which went into Mars orbit in September 1997. The rovers will be able to use Mars Odyssey to relay data to Earth. The rovers will check out several sites that are believed to be the most likely locales of ancient or even modern liquid water.

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EGYPTIAN MUMMIES SURPRISINGLY SOPHISTICATED

A new analysis of Egyptian mummies reported in this week's edition of the journal Nature has heightened experts' opinions of the mummy-makers of ancient Egypt. The analysis shows that they used a far more complex set of ingredients than had been thought. The mummy-makers left no written record of their work, but a systematic chemical investigation of a series of mummies by Richard Evershed and Stephen Buckley of Bristol University, United Kingdom, revealed resins from conifer and Pistacia trees, coniferous pitch, balsam, plant oils, animals fats, and beeswax. Previous researchers had found evidence of camphor oil, myrrh, and juniper oil as well. The coniferous resins have antimicrobial properties, which would have protected the bodies from decay. "This hints that the mummy-makers learned to choose mummification materials that are either anti-bacterial in their own right or that inhibit water and stop it getting in - such as beeswax," Evershed told New Scientist. The research shows "embalming materials and procedures vary more than expected, both within single dynasties and between historical periods. This could be a result of economics, changing fashions and the preferences of particular embalming guilds," said Sarah Wisseman, an expert on ancient materials at the University of Illinois.

(Editor; for more information on X-rays, call 734-647-3099; on Odyssey, call 607-255-3651)