All Stories

  1. Letters

    Shopping standards shift with age In “When good moods go decisively bad” (SN: 6/16/12, p. 10), researchers assume that their 70-year-old study participants would be as interested as their 20-something counterparts in finding up to 40 prices on 60 products in an Internet shopping exercise. When the septuagenarians fail to choose the cheapest product, the […]

    By
  2. SN Online

    DELETED SCENES BLOG The Higgs boson discovery leaked a day early when SN found a CERN video announcement. See “CMS spokesman: ‘We’ve observed a new particle.’ ” SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC BLOG Huddling together during hibernation puts bats at risk for disease. See “Warning to bats: Cuddle not.” HUMANS The earliest signs of people drinking […]

    By
  3. Science Future for July 28, 2012

    August 5/6 NASA’s new Mars rover Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars late night August 5 Pacific Daylight Time (in the early hours of August 6 in the Eastern time zone). NASA TV will cover the landing live. Find updates on Curiosity at bit.ly/SFMarsland August 16 The 21-and-up crowd can learn about the Big […]

    By
  4. Science Past from the issue of July 28, 1962

    BATTLE AGAINST EXHAUST POLLUTION — The automobile exhaust problem is being attacked from many directions in an effort to preserve man’s most necessary commodity, air…. In response to regulations by local and state governments and prodding from the Federal Government, several exhaust-trapping devices for cars have come on the market, none of which controls all […]

    By
  5. Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion by Andrew Robinson

    The first English-language biography of linguist Jean-François Champollion describes his quest to decipher hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone. Oxford Univ., 2012, 272 p., $29.95

    By
  6. Animals

    Shark

    A Visual History by Richard Ellis.

    By
  7. Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People by Harry Ostrer

    This history of the genetics of the Jewish people delves into the population biology and genetic diseases that tie the group together. Oxford Univ., 2012, 264 p., $24.95

    By
  8. The Ballet of the Planets: A Mathematician’s Musings on the Elegance of Planetary Motion by Donald C. Benson

    A mathematician describes the history of the science explaining planetary motion. Oxford Univ., 2012, 178 p., $35

    By
  9. Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame by Christopher Boehm

    An evolutionary anthropologist looks back through human evolution for clues to how groups of hunter-gatherers developed altruism and generous behaviors. Basic Books, 2012, 418 p., $28.99

    By
  10. Life

    The Violinist’s Thumb

    by Sam Kean.

    By
  11. Physics

    Trinity

    A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm.

    By
  12. Particle Physics

    Nature’s secrets foretold

    After decades of searching, it seems scientists have found the elusive Higgs boson.

    By