All Stories

  1. Paleontology

    Tracks suggest chase, capture, and after-meal respite

    A 1.3-meter-long, S-shaped trail of fossil footprints discovered in southwestern Indiana includes one set of disappearing tracks—suggesting an ancient chase—and an impression where the predator rested after its meal.

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  2. Beast Buddies

    As researchers muse about the evolutionary origins of friendship, even the social interactions of giraffes are getting a second look.

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  3. Physics

    A Spin through Space-Time

    After 40 years of preparation, satellite Gravity Probe B is scheduled to launch next month and test the prediction that massive bodies, such as Earth, twist space itself as they rotate.

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  4. Math

    Seven-Game World Series

    In professional baseball’s World Series, the championship is decided in a best-of-seven format. The first team to win four games gets the pennant. Curiously, series that go on for the full seven games appear to occur more often than simple probability arguments would suggest. Suppose that two, evenly matched teams have made it to the […]

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  5. Humans

    Letters

    Letters from the Oct. 25, 2003, issue of Science News.

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  6. Physics

    Super Spinner: Seven-atom speck acts like superfluid

    Scientists have for the first time directly observed the onset in liquid helium of superfluidity—a quantum-mechanical state in which liquids flow without friction—as helium atoms accumulated one by one to form a droplet of liquid around a gas molecule.

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  7. Paleontology

    Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along: Dinosaur buoyancy may explain odd tracks

    New lab experiments and computer analyses may explain how some of the heftiest four-legged dinosaurs ever to walk on Earth could have left trackways that include the imprints of only their front feet.

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  8. Astronomy

    When really big winds collide

    A newly released image shows dramatic details of the Crescent nebula, a giant gaseous shell created by outbursts of a massive star about to explode as a supernova.

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  9. Bad for the Bones: Thwarted hormone leads to skeletal decay

    Thyroid-stimulating hormone plays an unexpected role in bone remodeling.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    First Viruses, Now Tumors: AIDS drug shows promise against brain cancers

    A potential AIDS drug may also slow the growth of deadly brain tumors.

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  11. Tech

    Timing Is Everything: Implantable polymer chip delivers meds on schedule

    A polymer microchip implanted under the skin could deliver multiple doses of medications at programmed intervals, eliminating the need for pills and injections.

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  12. Earth

    Chicken Little? Study cites arsenic in poultry

    Most chicken eaten in the United States contains 3 to 4 times as much arsenic as is present in other kinds of meat and poultry.

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