Uncategorized
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Galileo’s Muse by Mark A. Peterson
A physicist and mathematician argues that Renaissance art spurred the scientific revolution that laid the foundations of modern science. Harvard Univ., 2011, 336 p., $28.95
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Frozen Planet: A World Beyond Imagination by Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz
Journey with four polar denizens — polar bear, Arctic fox, Adélie penguin and wandering albatross — through seasonal changes in this companion to a BBC television series. Firefly Books, 2011, 312 p., $39.95
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The Fossil Chronicles: How Two Controversial Discoveries Changed Our View of Human Evolution by Dean Falk
A scientist who studies brain evolution examines fossil finds — the Taung child and hobbits — that are changing views of human evolution. Univ. of California, 2011, 259 p., $34.95
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Super Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things: Power Devices with Your Plants, Modify High-Tech Toys, Turn a Penny into a Battery, Make Sneaky Light-up Nails … Sneaky Levitation with Everyday Things by Cy Tymony
Put your engineering skills to the test with this guide to building gadgets from common household items. Andrews McMeel, 2011, 145 p., $12.99
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Book Review: Relics: Travels in Nature’s Time Machine by Piotr Naskrecki
Review by Allison Bohac.
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2011 Science News of the Year
You can’t make this stuff up. An earthquake and tsunami trigger the worst nuclear accident in decades, contaminating thousands of square kilometers in one of the world’s most densely populated countries. Analyses of a sliver of finger bone reveal that the genes of an extinct human relative survive in many people living today. Single-celled organisms […]
- Life
The electric mole rat acid test
Naked mole rats don’t feel the burn of acid thanks to tweaks in a protein involved in sending pain messages to the brain.
- Humans
Uncommitted newbies can foil forceful few
Decisions more democratic when individuals with no preset preference join a group.
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- Life
Walking may have had wet start
Based on the way that primitive lungfish use their fins to move along tank bottoms, researchers argue for an underwater start to four-legged locomotion.
- Physics
Tantalizing hints of long-sought particle
Europe’s LHC collider finds traces of what could be the Higgs boson, a theoretical entity that explains why matter has mass.
