Uncategorized
- Animals
Egg Shell Game
Birds apparently cheat chance when it comes to laying eggs that contain sons or daughters.
- Physics
The Hunt for Antihelium
Scientists have been searching about 30 years for a single nucleus of helium made from antimatter, and although the discovery would imply that whole antimatter galaxies exist, the researchers' time could be running out.
- Humans
Letters from the May 12, 2007, issue of Science News
Saw right through it E. Fred Schubert and his colleagues are to be congratulated for developing an improved antireflective coating (“The New Black: A nanoscale coating reflects almost no light,” SN: 3/3/07, p. 132). But the coating would not make a lens “absorb” more light. Rather, it would help the lens “propagate” the light. Nathaniel […]
- Math
The Mathematical Lives of Plants
Scientists are figuring out why plants grow in spiral patterns that incorporate the 'golden angle'.
- Earth
Not-So-Clear Alternative: In its air-quality effects, ethanol fuel is similar to gasoline
Switching the nation's vehicles from gasoline to ethanol may not reduce air pollution.
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Ethanol is not an alternative to petroleum-based fuel to reduce air pollution. It is a grow-it-at-home alternative to foreign-source petroleum-based fuel. It takes only 2 years to build an ethanol-extraction plant but 10 years to build a petroleum-extraction plant. Right now, as long as ethanol doesn’t increase air pollution, I’ll take it. Lin DanielChatsworth, Calif. […]
- Health & Medicine
More Than Bit Players: Snippets of RNA might sway pancreatic cancer
Small pieces of genetic material called microRNA might provide a preview of pancreatic cancer's aggressiveness and offer targets for combating the usually deadly disease.
- Planetary Science
Liquid Center: Mercury has a molten core, radar reveals
Mercury is hot stuff: It's got a core that's at least partially molten, a new radar study of the planet's spin reveals.
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Automatic Networking: Brain systems charge up in unconscious monkeys
Even when monkeys are anesthetized, their brains show patterns of electrical activity similar to those exhibited during wakeful activity.
- Physics
Quantum Loophole: Some quirks of physics can be good for science
Physicists have found a way to almost double measurement precision when using photons to gauge distances.
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Talk to the Hand: Language might have evolved from gestures
Language might have evolved from hand gestures, say researchers who study communication in chimpanzees.
- Health & Medicine
Less Is More (Bone): Yearly osteoporosis drug reduces fractures
Older women with osteoporosis who received yearly infusions of a drug that prevents bone loss had far fewer fractures than did peers who didn't get the drug.
