Notebook

Science Future for November 8, 2008

November 15 The Museum of Life and Science in Durham, N.C., unveils its holiday mechanical sculpture display. Visit www.ncmls.org November 20 “Irreplaceable: The World’s Most Invaluable Species” debate held in London. Visit www.earthwatch.org/europe December 15–18 20th International Conference on Magnetically Levitated Systems and Linear Drives in San Diego. Visit www.maglev08.com

Science Past for November 8, 1958

Temperate zones may be man’s limit for cold — Men living in the temperate zones had better not leave home for colder climes. The areas between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle and between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle represent the limits as far as their cold endurance goes, a […]

From Science News Letter, October 25, 1958

PIONEER LACKED EXTRA PUSH —Pioneer, man’s first space probe, came within a fraction of the 35,250-foot-per-second velocity needed to put it into an orbit around the moon. It reached a maximum velocity of 34,400 feet per second. Even though the vehicle burned up in the earth’s atmosphere, its successful flight to a distance of 79,316 […]

Science Future for October 25, 2008

November 15 The Museum of Science in Boston will unveil a skeleton of Triceratops horridus as part of its Colossal Fossils: Triceratops Cliff exhibit. Visit www.mos.org December 7–12 The 4th IEEE International Conference on e-Science will be held in Indianapolis. Visit escience2008.iu.edu April 30, 2009 Deadline for Nikon’s Small World Photomicrography Competition. Visit www.nikonsmallworld.com

Science Future for October 11, 2008

October 16–25 Imagine Science Film Festival to be held in New York City. Visit www.imaginesciencefilms.com October 28–30 ChemEng08 to be held in Birmingham, England. Visit www.chemeng08.com November 1 The Dibner Hall of the History of Science opens at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif. Visit www.huntington.org

From Science News Letter, October 11, 1958

Fishy Conversations — Spiny lobsters are like men, their voices become deeper as they grow older. This is one of the preliminary findings of Dr. James M. Moulton of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., who spent this summer at the Bermuda Biological Station eavesdropping on the conversations of undersea life. In countless other marine biological stations […]

From Science News Letter, September 27, 1958

PARKINSON’S DISEASE NO LONGER INCURABLE — Parkinsonism, or shaking palsy, is no longer a hopeless, progressive, incurable disease. A five-year follow-up study of 700 brain operations for Parkinsonism revealed that 80% of the properly selected cases found relief from the tremor, rigidity, deformity and incapacitation of parkinsonism after basal ganglia surgery. Furthermore, these symptoms can […]

Science Future for September 27, 2008

October 3 Grid Fest at CERN in Geneva marks LHC’s computing grid going live. Visit lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/lhcgridfest October 12–18 Earth Science Week 2008, sponsored by the American 
Geological Institute, celebrates “No Child Left Inside.” Visit www.earthsciweek.org October 20–21 Orionids meteor shower expected to peak. Visit 
www.imo.net/calendar/2008

From Science News Letter, September 13, 1958

RNA INFLUENCES CELL DIFFERENTIATION — Ribonucleic acid has been pinpointed as having an essential role in cell differentiation, the process by which the early embryo’s look-alike cells become nerve, bone, skin and other organs. Working with extremely small quantities of cellular material, 20 to 50 cells, taken from embryonic newt and salamander tissue, Dr. M. C. Niu […]

Science Future for September 13, 2008

September 7–9 The first INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics. To be held in Stockholm. Visit www.neuroinformatics2008.org Sept. 21–Nov. 2 The walk-through Spider Pavilion opens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Visit the museum’s website at www.nhm.org Sept. 27–Oct. 12 Wired magazine’s NextFest in Chicago’s Millennium Park showcases global innovations. Visit www.wirednextfest.com

Science Future for August 30, 2008

September 14 Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy premieres on the Discovery Channel. Visit http://www.dsc.discovery.com October 5–9 International Banana Conference in Mombasa, Kenya. Visit http://www.banana2008.com October 18 Climate Change: the threat to Life and Our Energy Future opens at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Visit http://www.amnh.org

From Science News Letter, August 30, 1958

NO “SAFE” RADIATION DOSE — There is no period of safety after exposure to harmful radiation, a geneticist reports. Radiation has been found to affect the primitive germ cell from which the sperm develops. Chromosome abnormalities may be transmitted to offspring in dangerous numbers for a long time after irradiation of the male. This also […]