Uncategorized
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Science Past from the issue of July, 1962
DEFORMED BABIES BORN AS RESULT OF SEDATIVE —Some 800 deformed babies are expected to be born in the United Kingdom as a result of their mothers taking a dangerous sleeping pill during early pregnancy. The drug, thalidomide, was previously reported in West Germany as causing some 400 abnormal births. It has now been withdrawn from […]
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Letters
Redesigning flu mortality In “Designer flu” (SN: 6/2/12, p. 20), researcher Michael Osterholmis quoted as saying that even if the actual kill rate of H5N1 is 20 times lower than the current estimate of 59 percent, H5N1 would still have a mortality rate that “far exceeds” that of the 1918 flu. Wikipedia gives a 1918 […]
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Bird Sense: What It’s Like to Be a Bird by Tim Birkhead
A look at what it’s like to be a bird explores avian senses and traces how scientists have studied birds through time. Walker & Co., 2012, 288 p., $25
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The Universe in Zero Words: The Story of Mathematics as Told through Equations Dana Mackenzie
This history of mathematics revels in the logical beauty of 24 equations that describe the workings of the universe. Princeton Univ., 2012, 224 p., $27.95
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The Value of Species by Edward L. McCord
A naturalist explores reasons to care about preserving species that don’t have practical use to people. Yale Univ., 2012, 184 p., $25
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No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses by Peter Piot
A microbiologist tells tales of his adventures in Africa battling infectious diseases from Ebola to AIDS. W.W. Norton & Co., 2012, 304 p., $28.95
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Secret Lives of Ants by Jae Choe
Enter the miniature world of ants and learn about their societies, from massacres and power plays to self-sacrifice and factory-like enterprises. Johns Hopkins Univ., 2012, 156 p., $34.95
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BOOK REVIEW: The Man with the Bionic Brain: And Other Victories over Paralysis by Jon Mukand
Review by Laura Sanders.
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BOOK REVIEW: Dialogues on 2012: Why the World Will Not End by Christopher Keating
Review by Tina Hesman Saey.
- Health & Medicine
Body and Brain
Good touch, bad touch A leg caress can delight or feel totally skeevy, depending on who’s doing the caressing. A touch’s emotional baggage can be seen in the brain’s initial response to that touch, scientists report in the June 19 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Heterosexual men’s somatosensory cortices, brain regions that detect […]
- Animals
Mosquitoes Remade
Scientists reinvent agents of illness to become allies in fight against disease.
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Chasing a Cosmic Engine
After 100 years, energetic space particles continue to pose a perplexing mystery.
