Plugging "glue" in sticky cells
Platelets, the blood cells that help a cut finger stop bleeding, can also take a deadly turn as they course through veins and arteries. When platelets in the bloodstream clump together as a clot, they can trigger a heart attack or a stroke. When platelets stick to a moving cancer cell, they may hide it from the body's natural defenses.
   A Hopkins scientist is working on ways to disable platelets' unhealthy habits while preserving their ability to halt blood loss. The goal, says Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, is to unlock the secrets of the tacky molecules that platelets use to cling to each other and to the walls of blood vessels. Full story...

Student delivers "recycling" message
Two or three days a week, you will find Greg Downey deep inside the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., poring over thousands of turn-of-the-century documents to look for clues about the old Western Union bicycle messenger boys.
   In the "information age" spawned by the spread of the telegraph in the second half of the 19th century, the telegraph messenger boys were the foot soldiers that made the system work, aided by the bicycle. For more than 40 years, thousands of messengers--simply called "boys" back then because males between 12 and 14 years old were considered ideal for the job--delivered the e-mail of that era. Full story...

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