All Stories
- Astronomy
Controlling the speed of solar eruptions
The billion-ton blobs of magnetized gas that the sun sporadically hurls into space can't reach Earth in less than half a day.
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Dying before Their Time
Genetically engineered mice that get prematurely old give hints to the causes of aging.
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The teardrop shape of Venus away from the centermost part of the sun simply is caused by the photographic surface being planar, rather than spherical. The image can never be represented without distortion for the same reason that the globe can’t be represented without distortion on a flat map. Robert P. Kelso San Marcos, Texas […]
- Astronomy
Heavenly Passage
On June 8, the black dot of Venus passed across the face of the sun, the first time it did so in 122 years.
- Health & Medicine
Medical Advice
Looking for medical advice? Medicine On-Line is one place to go. The site covers topics ranging from vaccines to snake bites to white-coat hypertension (the tendency for a patient’s blood pressure to rise in the presence of a doctor). Affiliated with the International Journal of Medicine, Medicine On-Line taps the knowledge and experience of physicians […]
- Humans
Letters from the July 10, 2004, issue of Science News
Language of music The study by Hyde and Peretz about people inept at all things musical (“Brain roots of music depreciation,” SN: 5/8/04, p. 302: Brain roots of music depreciation) made me think of my spouse of 20 years. In addition to a lifetime of utter tone deafness, he also nearly didn’t receive his graduate […]
- Math
Dogs Catching Frisbees
When navigating to intercept a thrown Frisbee, dogs appear to use the same geometric strategy that a baseball fielder employs to snag a fly ball hit into the outfield.
- Agriculture
A Maize-ing Travels
Corn, an American native, has taken root the world over and is becoming increasingly important to agriculture in nations beyond the West.
- Humans
From the June 30, 1934, issue
A beetle's eye view of George Washington, cosmic rays, and visualizing air currents around airplanes.
- Paleontology
Neck Bones on the Menu: Fossil vertebrae show species interaction
Three fossil neck bones from an ancient flying reptile—one of them with the broken tip of a tooth embedded in it—indicate that the winged creatures occasionally fell victim to meat eaters.
- Plants
Rewriting the Nitrogen Story: Plant cycles nutrient forward and backward
For the first time, a green plant has been found to break down nitrogen-containing compounds into the readily usable form of nitrates, a job usually done by microbes.
- Anthropology
Erectus Experiment: Fossil find expands Stone Age anatomy
A 930,000-year-old fossil cranium found in Africa widens the anatomical spectrum of Stone Age human ancestors and expands debate over how they evolved.
