Notebook
- Paleontology
Oldest bug bonk
Preserved as fossils, two insects remain caught in the act 165 million years later.
- Animals
Pink armadillos ain’t your Texas critters
It’s a real animal, the smallest armadillo species in the world. At about 100 grams, it would fit in your hands.
- Animals
Dolphin without a name
While splitting the dolphin family tree, researchers found a new species.
- Physics
New Atomic Accelerator
This excerpt from the December 14, 1963, issue of Science News Letter talks about how the atom smashers at Argonne National Lab have evolved.
- Materials Science
Qingsongite
This newly christened mineral has an atomic structure that’s similar to diamond and nearly as hard.
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- Planetary Science
Moon material on Earth
Scientists now think that tektites are a type of impactite, formed during the rapid heating and cooling of material ejected when a meteorite strikes Earth.
- Physics
Oldest pitch-drop experiment
The allure of pitch — a black tarlike hydro-carbon by-product of distilling petroleum, wood or coal — comes from its split personality: It shatters from a quick hit with a hammer, but flows if set aside for long periods.
- Health & Medicine
Seek Meningitis Vaccine
Excerpt from the November 9, 1963, issue of SCIENCE NEWS LETTER.
- Animals
The colorful lives of squid
Your calamari, it turns out, may have come from a temporary transvestite with rainbows in its armpits.
- Animals
Dogs pick up robots’ social cues
Dogs were more likely to pay attention to a PeopleBot robot — a machine with a laptop head and Mickey Mouse–style hands — after watching it walk, talk and shake hands with humans.
- Science & Society
Funding slide
U.S. federal spending on science has decreased sharply since 2010. Scientists are feeling the crunch.
