Notebook
- Animals
Flightless birds face extinction
New Zealand’s flightless birds have limped through the last few decades, but conservation efforts have had some success.
- Plants
Kleptoplast
A cellular part such as a light-harvesting chloroplast that an organism takes from algae it has eaten.
- Physics
Tea time
Leave it to the English to solve the mystery of a tea kettle’s whistle.
By Andrew Grant -
- Genetics
Top genomes of 2013
Scientists continue to decode the genetic blueprints of the planet’s myriad flora and fauna.
By Beth Mole -
- Environment
World’s worst polluted
A new report by Green Cross Switzerland and the Blacksmith Institute lists places posing the greatest risk to human health.
- Animals
A corsage that bites
The orchid mantis uses a flowery subterfuge to lure prey.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Cryovolcano
An ice volcano that erupts slurries of volatile compounds such as water or methane instead of lava.
By Erin Wayman - Computing
Fastest supercomputers
The new list of the world’s fastest computers, now in its 20th year, has China’s Tianhe-2 on top with a processing speed of 33.9 petaflops — or quadrillions of calculations per second.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer vaccine in near future foreseen
Excerpt from the December 21, 1963 issue of SCIENCE NEWS LETTER.
- Physics
Ripple effect
If you want ripples in your icicles, just add salt. This recipe comes from physicists reporting in the October New Journal of Physics.