Uncategorized
- Anthropology
Not So Clear-Cut: Soil erosion may not have led to Mayan downfall
Hand-planted maize, beans, and squash sustained the Mayans for millennia, until their culture collapsed about 1,100 years ago. Some researchers have suggested that the Mayans’ very success in turning forests into farmland led to soil erosion that made farming increasingly difficult and eventually caused their downfall. But a new study of ancient lake sediments has […]
- Astronomy
Odd Couples: Big black holes challenge star theory
The discovery of a black hole almost 16 times as massive as the sun, and the possible discovery of an even heavier one, challenge theories of how such black holes form.
- Physics
Let There Be Aluminum-42: Experiment creates surprise isotope
In experiments that created the heaviest isotope yet of magnesium, an unexpected isotope of aluminum also showed up.
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19896
This article indicates that Adam appeared on the fifth day. The actual day of Adam’s appearance, according to Genesis, chapter 1, is the sixth day. Nathan S. ClemonsEtchison, Md. I found your reference to the Christian creation myth offensive. I’ll bet it brought the same feeling to anyone else who, like me, has worked to […]
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19895
Mild vibration encourages precursor cells to turn into muscle and bone. This seems like something NASA could use to keep astronauts fit. Rich DesiletsSanta Rosa, Calif. It would be interesting to some way check fat versus muscle cells in airline pilots and crew; ship crews; anyone who rides the subways to work or the passengers […]
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Good Buzz: Tiny vibrations may limit fat-cell formation
Mice that spend time on a mildly vibrating platform develop bone or muscle cells in preference to fat cells.
- Math
Mathematical Fortune-Telling
A researcher uses game theory to predict the outcome of political and business challenges, including the current dispute with Iran over nuclear technology.
- Tech
Catch a Wave: Carbon nanotubes go wireless
Despite all the hubbub about carbon nanotubes as possible building blocks of superstrong materials or as components of supersmall electronics, few practical applications have yet come to fruition. Integrating nanotubes into functioning electronic devices has proved especially difficult, but researchers have now built a carbon-nanotube component into a simple radio receiver. TINY RADIO. A single […]
- Paleontology
Digging the Scene: Dinos burrowed, built dens
Dinosaurs remains fossilized within an ancient burrow are the first indisputable evidence that some dinosaurs maintained an underground lifestyle.
- Health & Medicine
HIV-positive people getting heavier
With drug treatment, HIV-infected people no longer suffer from wasting but are about as overweight or obese as the U.S. population as a whole.
- Health & Medicine
‘Knuckle fever’ reaches Italy
A virus that causes debilitating fever and joint pain has spread from Africa to Italy, where it has caused at least 284 cases of illness.
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19894
This article says that chikungunya means “stooped over in pain” in an African dialect. But which one? Africa has a thousand languages, many of which have more than one dialect. Pol ShwingkCarlisle, Iowa The word comes from the language of the Makonde people of eastern Africa, although it has sometimes been labeled erroneously as Swahili. […]
