All Stories
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Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life by Richard Cohen
Traveling to nearly 20 countries, the author traces efforts to understand Earth’s nearest star, from ancient Egyptian sun myths to a modern-day Antarctic observatory. CHASING THE SUN: THE EPIC STORY OF THE STAR THAT GIVES US LIFE BY RICHARD COHEN Random House, 2010, 574 p., $35.
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Neuroscience exposes pernicious effects of poverty
At the 2010 Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, a group of scientists held a session on how poverty changes the brain. Neuroscientist Helen Neville of the University of Oregon in Eugene joined the discussion and described some of her group’s studies on the brains of 3- to 5-year-old children who grow up poor. […]
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Letters
Prescient Editor in Chief? I got behind on magazine reading over the summer; now that colder weather is here I’m catching up, randomly. I read the Nov. 6 issue one day, with the Life article on microbes that walk on their pili (“Sure, but can they chew gum too?” SN: 11/6/10, p. 8); the next […]
- Math
Fruit flies teach computers a lesson
Insect's nerve cell development is a model of efficiency for sensing networks.
- Psychology
The write stuff for test anxiety
A brief writing exercise prompts higher exam scores for students struggling with academic stress.
- Earth
2010 ties record for warmest year yet
El Ni±o heated things up even as global temperatures continue to rise in the hottest decade on record.
- Paleontology
Early meat-eating dinosaur unearthed
Pint-sized, two-legged runner from Argentina dates back to the dawn of the dinos, 230 million years ago.
- Humans
Night owls may want to dim their lights
People who spend their evenings in relatively bright light run the risk of stressing their bodies by ratcheting down the production of melatonin. This hormone plays a pivotal role in setting the body’s biological clock – and, potentially, in limiting the development of certain cancers.
- Humans
Marking penguins for study may do harm
Metal flipper bands used to tell birds apart hamper survival and reproduction, a 10-year study finds.
- Space
Neighboring black hole puts on weight
Galaxy M87's massive heart weighs as much as 6.6 billion suns.
- Health & Medicine
When good cholesterol is even better
It's quality, not just quantity, of high-density lipoprotein that counts in heart disease, study suggests.
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