Uncategorized
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The Geek Dad’s Guide to Weekend Fun: Cool Hacks, Cutting-Edge Games, and More Awesome Projects for the Whole Family by Ken Denmead
All the entertainment a geek family could want is packed into this how-to book, from backyard zip lines to homemade robots. Gotham Books, 2011, 227 p., $18.
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Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System by Ray Jayawardhana
Engaging stories of astronomers and their quest to find Earthlike planets orbiting distant suns, and even signs of life. Princeton Univ. Press, 2011, 255 p., $24.95.
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Bad Science by Linda Zimmermann
A brief history of science blunders through the ages, including radium cures and phrenology, the reading of head bumps. Eagle Press, 2011, 224 p., $14.95.
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Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku
A physicist interviews over 300 scientists and lays out a mostly rosy vision of research advances that he predicts will shape the world by 2100. Doubleday, 2011, 389 p., $28.95.
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Mind the gap: Genetic knowledge and medical power
Since the completion of the Human Genome Project a decade ago, much excitement has swirled around the possibility that determining a person’s genetic makeup could help doctors personalize the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. But James P. Evans, a physician and geneticist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says the promises […]
- Space
Dry ice, wetter Mars
A previously unknown reservoir of frozen carbon dioxide could periodically vaporize, thickening the atmosphere and allowing liquid water to flow on the Red Planet’s surface.
- Earth
Ozone loss made tropics rainier
Hole over Antarctica changes weather patterns all the way to the equator, simulations suggest.
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Body & Brain
Hockey concussions take progressively longer to heal, plus rotavirus vaccines and declining stillbirths in this week’s news.
- Chemistry
Pesticides tied to lower IQ in children
Chemicals once sprayed in homes — and still used on farms — were found to have significant effects in three studies.
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- Health & Medicine
Flies on meth burn through sugar
Cellular effects may explain why addicts often have a sweet tooth.
- Health & Medicine
Mucus-related gene tied to lung disease
People with pulmonary fibrosis are much more likely to make excess amounts of a normally beneficial protein, a study finds.
