All Stories
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Plants, bats magnify neurotoxin in Guam
Researchers have found that the natural neurotoxin BMAA gets magnified as it rises through a food chain on Guam, a finding that strengthens a recent hypothesis that attempts to explain a spike in neurological disease on that island.
- Planetary Science
Martian sand ripples are taller than Earth’s
New data gathered by a Mars-orbiting probe suggest that large ripples found in sandy areas of the Red Planet are more than twice as tall as their terrestrial counterparts.
- Health & Medicine
Two markers may predict heart risk
Two proteins that play a role in inflammation may serve as indicators of a person's risk of heart disease and stroke.
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Tiny Bubbles
Microscopic vesicles shed by cells may help the AIDS virus, benefit cancer cells, and drive the immune response.
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19290
Unfortunately your article got something wrong in describing the reshaping of aircraft surfaces. It states, “The recently retired supersonic commercial transport, the Concorde, tilted its nose downward for subsonic flight.” This is not the (whole) truth because the reason for this reshaping was not to reduce air drag, but to achieve a far-better view of […]
- Tech
Wings of Change
Inspired by the Wright brothers, who steered their first flyer by twisting its pliant wings, engineers are developing versatile and flexible flying machines expected to undergo radical shape changes in flight.
- Health & Medicine
Talking Turkey (with recipe)
They can weigh in at 40 pounds or more. They prefer walking, but they can fly. And if Benjamin Franklin had had his way, they would be the U.S. national symbol. We’re talking turkey–wild turkey, that is. Wild turkeys like those shown here are anything but white. National Wild Turkey Federation Turkeys naturally prefer to […]
- Humans
From the November 25, 1933, issue
STEEL TOWERS GO UP AND DOWN TO SPEED SURVEY OF COUNTRY Work on control surveys of the United States is being rapidly pushed forward under funds recently provided by the Public Works Administration to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Although the immediate purpose is to provide employment to a great number of men, the […]
- Math
Fractal World
Created by Michael Frame, Benoit Mandelbrot, and Nial Neger of Yale University, these Web pages serve as a remarkably comprehensive source of information on fractal geometry. The site offers basic definitions, many illustrations, and lots of mathematical details. Topics include natural fractals and dimensions, iterated function systems, the complex Newton’s method, fractals in art and […]
- Earth
The Next MTBE: Contamination from fuel additives could spread
Several alternatives to the common gasoline additives methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and ethanol could create environmental problems similar to those that MTBE has already caused.
- Tech
Electronic Thread: Fiber transistor may lead to woven circuits
By coating flexible metal fibers with semiconductors, researchers have developed individual threads that act as transistors and that should be linkable into circuits by means of wires included among a fabric's threads.
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Protein Portal: Enzyme acts as door for the SARS virus
A protein that regulates blood pressure also serves as the cellular portal for the SARS virus.
