Uncategorized
- Tech
Wanted: Better Yardsticks
A new federal survey has found that a lack of measurement tools may jeopardize the United States' edge in technological innovation.
By Janet Raloff - Computing
The Machine’s Got Rhythm
By teaching computers how to transcribe musical recordings, a relatively mundane task, researchers are opening new musical possibilities.
- Humans
Letters from the April 21, 2007, issue of Science News
How the West isn’t one The author of “Why So Dry? Ocean temperatures alone don’t explain droughts” (SN: 2/10/07, p. 84), seems to feel, like most other writers do, that “the western United States” properly covers all geographical bases. Believe me, the Pacific Northwest is anything but dry. One other point about geography: Weather phenomena, […]
By Science News -
- Math
Euler’s Beautiful Equation
Leonhard Euler, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, was born 300 years ago on April 15, 1707.
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- Earth
Greaseball Challenge
And they’re off! The participants in this charity biofuel car rally are on their way from the U.S. East Coast to San Jose, Costa Rica. Powered by biodiesel, vegetable oil, waste grease, and other alternative fuels, the vehicles will all be donated to local communities at the end of the rally, which runs until April […]
By Science News - Anthropology
Disinherited Ancestor: Lucy’s kind may occupy evolutionary side branch
A controversial analysis of a recently discovered jaw from a 3-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis puts Lucy's species on an evolutionary side branch that eventually died out.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Agents of Metastasis: Four proteins conspire in breast cancer spread
Four proteins work together to assist cancer growth and metastasis, and drugs against them inhibit both processes, tests in mice suggest.
By Nathan Seppa - Physics
Quantum Capture: Photosynthesis tries many paths at once
The wavelike behavior of energy in chlorophyll might explain how plants are so efficient at using solar energy.
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Female Stem Cells Flourish: Sex difference could affect therapies
Certain adult stem cells from female mice regenerate better than those from males, indicating that not all stem cells are created equal.
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19820
The existence of ancient proteins is no surprise. Evidence of remnants of durable, skeleton-associated proteins such as collagen are not uncommon in the fossil record long before Tyrannosaurus rex. For example, remains of bivalve ligaments are known from the mid-Ordovician, over 400 million years ago. Other durable but pliable organic materials, such as protist resting […]
By Science News