Uncategorized
- Earth
Multifaceted Mineral: Intense heat, pressure bear new form of silica
By squeezing a mineral sample to pressures higher than those deep within Earth, then zapping it with a laser, scientists have created a crystalline form of silicon dioxide previously unknown on Earth.
- Health & Medicine
From Famine, Schizophrenia: Starvation gives birth to personality disorder
Women who go severely hungry during early pregnancy face twice the normal risk of having a child who develops schizophrenia in adulthood.
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While no obstetrician nowadays advocates starving expectant mothers, there was a general belief for many years that a pregnant woman should gain minimal weight. It might be of interest to know if this practice had any influence on the incidence of schizophrenia. Nelson MaransSilver Spring, Md.
- Planetary Science
Bigger than Pluto: Tenth planet or icy leftover?
Astronomers have found a body larger and more distant than Pluto, the biggest object found in the solar system since Neptune and its moon Triton were discovered in 1846.
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Double Dog: Researchers produce first cloned canine
The dogged pursuit of a South Korean research team has produced Snuppy, the world's first cloned canine.
- Humans
Letters from the August 6, 2005, issue of Science News
Empty threat? “Empty Nets: Fisheries may be crippling themselves by targeting the big ones” (SN: 6/4/05, p. 360) reads as if there is something to be alarmed about. By selectively catching large fish, we have reduced “the mean size [of food fish to] one-fifth of what it was.” This is not cause for alarm. It […]
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- Earth
Life thrived below solid ice shelf
A survey of a segment of Antarctic seafloor that until recently had laid beneath a thick, floating ice shelf for thousands of years has revealed an ecosystem apparently based on chemical nourishment, not sunshine.
- Earth
Hurricanes get boost from ocean spray
A new model that describes airflow across the ocean's surface suggests that tiny droplets whipped from the tops of waves increase wind speeds well above what they'd be if the ocean spray wasn't there.
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This article reports on research indicating that winds above the ocean surface can increase due to an apparent damping of turbulence by particles of ocean spray. I would like to point out that a similar phenomenon has been identified in rivers. In situations where the transport of fine sediment particles (sands, clays) coming from the […]
- Health & Medicine
King George III should have sued
The madness of England's King George III may have been partly due to arsenic poisoning.
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Bacteria feed on stinky breath
Scientists have isolated mouth bacteria that consume the chemicals that cause bad breath.
