All Stories
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Making Sense of Autistic Spectrum Disorders by James Coplan
A pediatrician reviews treatments for children with these disorders. Making Sense of Autistic Spectrum Disorders by James Coplan Bantam Books, 2010, 448 p., $25.
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Science Future for April 10, 2010
April 18Final day to visit the New York Hall of Science’s hands-on mathematics exhibit. See www.nysci.org/explore/upcoming April 24 – 28The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meets in Anaheim, Calif. See www.asbmb.org June 2 – 6 Researchers, cultural critics and others meet in New York City to celebrate science. See www.worldsciencefestival.com
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Science Past from the issue of April 9, 1960
CALIFORNIA ZOO APES BECOME “MEDICAL FIRSTS” — Noell, Scoop and Tria, three apes that live in the San Diego zoo, have made medical history. They “came down” with chicken pox while in their zoo cages during a period last summer when there was a high incidence of that disease among children in San Diego County. […]
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Letters
Hairy Ardi issue In the report on Ardi (“Evolution’s bad girl,” SN: 01/16/10, p. 22), the artist’s illustrations show her in fur. The fact that her purported descendants are relatively hairless has been popularized by Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape, 1967) and Elaine Morgan (The Descent of Woman, 1972). What is the paleoanthropologists’ evidence that […]
- Health & Medicine
One of H1N1’s mysteries explained
The current H1N1 influenza shares many similarities with the 1918 pandemic influenza.
- Health & Medicine
Existing antibiotic might help keep wraps on AIDS virus
The acne drug minocycline inhibits HIV activation in infected immune cells, lab tests show.
- Paleontology
Tyrannosaurs lived in the Southern Hemisphere, too
Australian fossils suggest the kin of T. rex dispersed globally 110 million years ago.
- Chemistry
Building a cheaper catalyst
Using perovskite instead of platinum in catalytic converters could shave many hundreds of dollars off the cost of a diesel car.
- Chemistry
The skinny on indoor ozone
Indoor concentrations of ozone tend to be far lower than those outside, largely because much gets destroyed as molecules of the respiratory irritant collide with surfaces and undergo transformative chemical reactions. New research identifies a hitherto ignored surface that apparently plays a major role in quashing indoor ozone: It’s human skin. And while removing ozone from indoor air should be good, what takes its place may not be, data indicate.
- Humans
Ancient DNA suggests new hominid line
Genetic data unveil a previously unknown Stone Age ancestor in central Asia.
- Earth
Bacteria show new route to making oxygen
New discovery adds to the few known biological pathways for making and metabolically using the gas.
- Chemistry
BPA found beached and at sea
Food chemists have been showing for years that bisphenol A, an estrogen-mimicking building block of polycarbonate plastics and food-can coatings, can leach into food and drinks. But other materials contain BPA – and leach it – such as certain resins used in nautical paint. And Katsuhiko Saido suspects those paints explain the high concentrations of BPA that he’s just found in beach sand and coastal seawater around the world.
