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At Nobel Conference, scientists and public converse
Physics professor Charles Niederriter of Gustavus Adolphus College directs the Nobel Conference, an annual forum where scientists and the public discuss a contemporary scientific topic. Held every year at Gustavus Adolphus, in Saint Peter, Minn., this year’s Nobel Conference, October 6–7, will examine the current state of water resources. Staff writer Laura Sanders recently talked […]
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Science needs ace communicators and politicians
In February, Alice Huang became president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The renowned virologist began her career at Harvard in 1971, eventually becoming director of the laboratories of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital Boston. After a stint at New York University, she moved to the California Institute of Technology in 1997 […]
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Bracing for global climate change is a local challenge
Weather and climate extremes have been affecting people around the world, from recent droughts in China and Australia to strong storms in Asia to a cold wave in large parts of Europe and the United States — all within a month of the World Meteorological Organization reporting 2008 would likely rank among the 10 warmest […]
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Treaty on antiquities hinders access for museums
Treaty on antiquities hinders access for museums JAMES CUNO Like water on a leaky roof, looted artifacts are finding the path of least resistance to a buyer somewhere. Art Inst. of Chicago James Cuno, a past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, has spent years investigating implications of a United Nations treaty: the […]
- Math
The four color problem gets a sharp new hue
Mathematicians find new answers to the still puzzling theorem that four colors suffice to color any map.
- Humans
U.S. science remains far from ‘its rightful place’
Rush Holt, a plasma physicist by training, represents New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District in the U.S. Congress. From 1989 to 1998, Holt was assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a research institute focused on fusion as an alternate energy source. Holt was elected to the House of Representatives in 1998. Recently, staff writer […]
- Math
Mathematician answers Supreme Court plea
New, fair method for dividing states into congressional districts could reduce political squabbles.
- Humans
Nation needs recovery plan for science faculty jobs
Over the past few months, many graduate students and postdocs have been receiving letters from department chairs apologetically explaining that the faculty job search at Institution X has been canceled. State and private universities are facing declining tax revenues and falling endowments, and are unwilling to raise tuition on newly impoverished families. From Harvard to […]
- Life
Darwin: The reluctant mathematician
Despite disliking mathematics, the great biologist inadvertently advanced statistics.
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Receding glaciers erase records of climate history
For three decades, Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University has been monitoring the health of glaciers atop mountains from Peru to China . Skeptics initially doubted that he could retrieve meaningful data from these remote elevations. But he has, while also discovering that these millennia-old data-storage lockers are rapidly disappearing. Senior Editor Janet Raloff recently […]
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