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2010 Science News of the Year: Environment

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory Gulf drilling disaster The biggest oil spill in U.S. history began April 20, when an explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform sent oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico at rates at times exceeding 65,000 barrels a day (SN Online: 9/23/10). By the time the well was […]

2010 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR

A year ago, most geneticists had all but dismissed the notion that humans and Neandertals interbred. But with the cataloging of the full Neandertal genome, announced in May, we now know that people of European and Asian descent really have inherited a small percentage of their DNA from a rival species that went extinct about […]

2010 Science News of the Year: Matter & Energy

Approaching the island of stability Smashing together the elements calcium-48, with 20 protons, and berkelium-249, with 97, has produced superheavy atoms containing 117 protons, albeit for a tiny sliver of a second (SN: 4/24/10, p. 15). Temporarily known as ununseptium, the new element fills an empty spot in the periodic table between the previously discovered […]

2010 Science News of the Year: Life

Credit: Javier García Warming changes how and where animals live New concerns have emerged about how climate warming might challenge animals and change the way they go about their lives. For example, a coalition of lizard specialists suggests that by midcentury a third of lizard populations won’t have enough time for foraging or other vital […]

Black Holes in the Bathtub

Scientists observe Hawking radiation in unexpected materials.

Continental Hearts

Ancient expanses called cratons pose a geological puzzle

Genetic Dark Matter

Searching for new sources to explain human variation.

It’s enough to give you heartburn

Wonder drugs they may be, but PPIs are overprescribed and pose some health risks.

The final climate frontiers

Scientists aim to improve and localize their predictions.

Tiny tubes, big riddles

Carbon cylinders’ odd traits continue to stump scientists.

Sources of Einstein’s comments

Leopold Infeld, Albert Einstein: His work and its influence on our world. Charles Scribner’s Sons,1950, p. 110 Max Born, The Born-Einstein Letters. Macmillan, 1971, pp. 168-69, 192. Albert Einstein, “Physics and Reality,” in Ideas and Opinions, Dell Publishing, 1973, pp. 307-308, 310-311. Albert Einstein, “The Fundaments of Theoretical Physics,” in Ideas and Opinions, Dell Publishing, […]

Past SN Quantum coverage

Science News has been covering quantum entanglement since the 1920s. Read past stories.