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RNA INFLUENCES CELL DIFFERENTIATION — Ribonucleic acid has been pinpointed as having an essential role in cell differentiation, the process by which the early embryo’s look-alike cells become nerve, bone, skin and other organs. Working with extremely small quantities of cellular material, 20 to 50 cells, taken from embryonic newt and salamander tissue, Dr. M. C. Niu of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, found that the presence of ribonucleic acid is critical for the formation of specialized tissues. He used cells removed from two-to-five-day-old fertilized egg...Published: Friday, August 29th, 2008
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September 7–9 The first INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics. To be held in Stockholm. Visit www.neuroinformatics2008.org Sept. 21–Nov. 2 The walk-through Spider Pavilion opens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Visit the museum’s website at www.nhm.org Sept. 27–Oct. 12 Wired magazine’s NextFest in Chicago’s Millennium Park showcases global innovations. Visit www.wirednextfest.comPublished: Friday, August 29th, 2008
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Disturbing numbers I found the “Sizing up science” Science Stat (SN: 8/2/08, p. 4) somewhat disconcerting with regard to the opinion about medicine. Basic medical research, in which ties to pharmaceutical companies and the like are not limited, may be “scientific” in the usual sense, but once you enter the arena of clinical research, the “scientific” is scarcely applicable. Objectivity and truth in reporting are not exactly encouraged in the current clinical medical research climate. It should be unsettling that a paper reporting an important negative result — one that ne...Published: Friday, August 29th, 2008
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September 14 Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy premieres on the Discovery Channel. Visit http://www.dsc.discovery.com October 5–9 International Banana Conference in Mombasa, Kenya. Visit http://www.banana2008.com October 18 Climate Change: the threat to Life and Our Energy Future opens at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Visit http://www.amnh.orgPublished: Thursday, August 28th, 2008
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NO “SAFE” RADIATION DOSE — There is no period of safety after exposure to harmful radiation, a geneticist reports. Radiation has been found to affect the primitive germ cell from which the sperm develops. Chromosome abnormalities may be transmitted to offspring in dangerous numbers for a long time after irradiation of the male. This also is important evidence that there is no such thing as a “minimum permissible dose of radiation,” says Dr. A.B. Griffen of the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Me. Until now many scientists had believed the effects of irradiation on t...Published: Thursday, August 28th, 2008
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Disturbing numbers I found the “Sizing up science” Science Stat (SN: 8/2/08, p. 4) somewhat disconcerting with regard to the opinion about medicine. Basic medical research, in which ties to pharmaceutical companies and the like are not limited, may be “scientific” in the usual sense, but once you enter the arena of clinical research, the “scientific” is scarcely applicable. Objectivity and truth in reporting are not exactly encouraged in the current clinical medical research climate. It should be unsettling that a paper reporting an important negative result — one that ne...Published: Friday, August 15th, 2008
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Home / SN Bookshelf / Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the CenturyWatson Davis clipped a short article out of a newspaper on May 7, 1925. John Scopes had been arrested for discussing evolution in a Tennessee public high school. In the Scopes trial, Davis saw an opportunity for his young nonprofit organization, Science Service, to prove its worth. The Science Service Executive Committee agreed to give its reporters $1,000 to cover the trial. The committee also decided to reject neutrality, supporting the defense on the side of evolution. Davis and Frank Thone, the senior biology editor of Science Service’s newsletters, acted as journalist...Published: Monday, August 4th, 2008 -
Home / SN Bookshelf / The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It"The truth is that what ordinary people really care about are things they can see, with their own eyes,” writes Zimmerman, a science writer and historian. The Hubble Space Telescope has let the public see the universe and has completely changed humanity’s perception of the cosmos. The Universe in a Mirror explores the lives of the men and women who dreamed of, lobbied for and engineered the first optical, Earth-orbiting telescope — the one that made the view of the heavens clear. Zimmerman begins the story with astronomers who were “condemned to look at the he...Published: Monday, August 4th, 2008 -
September 10–13 First International Ragweed Conference in Budapest. Visit www.nki.hu/ragweed September 15 An Evening with Frank Wilczek: The Lightness of Being. Reception and book signing by the physics Nobel laureate at the New York Academy of Sciences. Visit www.nyas.org/events October 4 Great Insect Fair at Pennsylvania State University. Visit www.ento.psu.edu/scied/fair.htmlPublished: Friday, August 1st, 2008
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WATERBIRDS DISPOSSESSED — Marshes, swamps and wetlands throughout the United States are on their way out. Going with them are hundreds of our waterbirds. Ducks, geese, herons, grebes, coots and many other birds that depend on wetlands for nesting, shelter and food are being dispossessed. As water and land are being taken over for farming, industrial development or to give expanding cities room, whole populations of waterbirds are disappearing, many going north and south of the border. Three scientists, studying a small marsh in Utah, have been able to measure the direct effects of lost wetla...Published: Friday, August 1st, 2008
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Starry details The article “Astronomers find distant star with a whole set of superEarths” (SN: 7/05/08, p. 7) leaves out some of the most interesting and important information. Is HD 40307 a G-type star like our sun? Which method was used to detect the planets? The article implies Doppler was used, but Doppler could not give the specific masses of planets in the article. John Myers, San Diego, Calif. HD 40307 is a K-type star, spectral class K2.5V . You could call this an orange dwarf star. The researchers used the Doppler method. Technically their measurements give minimum masses. T...Published: Friday, August 1st, 2008
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Iridescent shortcut I was disappointed with your diagram of a Morpho wing in the June 7 issue (“How they shine,” SN: 6/7/08, p. 26). Rather than properly show different wavelengths of light interfering differently, you instead chose to cheat by keeping the wavelength the same in the two pictures and reversing the phase of the reflection from “Surface 2.” By doing this, you failed to illustrate the physics and lost an opportunity to elucidate it to the reader, who may instead come away with confusion or even an incorrect understanding of the phenomenon. Mike Speciner, Acton, Mass. ...Published: Monday, July 21st, 2008
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Stories about the iconoclasts who changed their fields by challenging assumptions.Published: Friday, July 18th, 2008Found in: Biology -
An argument that opposition to farm science hurts the poor.Published: Friday, July 18th, 2008Found in: Agriculture and Science & Society -
Home / SN Bookshelf / The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their PatientsPersonal essays from more than two dozen dedicated veterinarians who care for exotic animals in U.S. zoos.Published: Friday, July 18th, 2008Found in: Life
