Uncategorized
- Chemistry
Recipe for Roman cosmetic revealed
British chemists have found that a white material inside a small tin canister excavated from a 2000-year-old Roman temple is an ancient cosmetic face cream.
- Humans
Letters from the December 11, 2004, issue of Science News
Mover Earth I would have thought that it is more likely that Earth’s hum creates the weather patterns (“Humming Along: Ocean waves may cause global seismic noise,” SN: 10/2/04, p. 212: Humming Along: Ocean waves may cause global seismic noise) than the other way around. Judy AngelGlasgow, Scotland Nuclear fallout “Hurrying a nuclear identity switch” […]
- Health & Medicine
Stemming Incontinence: Injected muscle cells restore urinary control
Stem cells removed from healthy muscle, grown in a lab, and inserted back into women with urinary incontinence can rebuild a muscle needed to control urine flow.
- Materials Science
Color Collective: Polymer self-assembles into light-emitting film
Stacks of sheets of light-emitting organic molecules that assemble into nanoscale structures could be more efficient and luminescent than existing display materials based on organic substances.
- Physics
Swift Lift: Birds may get a rise out of swirling air
The wings of airborne birds may generate whirlpools of air to produce lift for flying, just as insects do.
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19490
I was surprised to read in this article the explanation, “Those low-pressure swirls create suction that pulls the insect upward.” There is no physical force known as “suction.” As the article correctly states, the leading-edge wing vortices create a low-pressure zone above the wings, and the higher-pressure air under the insect’s wings pushes the insect […]
- Health & Medicine
Smog Clogs Arteries: Pollution does lasting harm to blood vessels
Air pollution does long-term damage to people's arteries, leading to increased risk of heart attack and stroke, a Los Angeles study confirms.
- Astronomy
Disks of Dust: Planet-stuff surrounds other sunlike stars
Two orbiting observatories for the first time are homing in on planetary debris circling sunlike stars.
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Cloning Milestone: Monkey embryos urged to stem cell stage
Researchers have coaxed cloned rhesus macaque embryos to grow to the blastocyst stage, the furthest point yet reached in cloning a nonhuman primate.
- Archaeology
China’s Fermented Past: Pottery yields signs of oldest known wine
Analyses of ancient pottery have yielded evidence the people living in northern China 9,000 years ago concocted a fermented, winelike drink from rice, honey, and fruit.
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Mice smell a mate’s immune system
By sniffing molecules present in urine, mice gain insight into each other's immune systems.
- Health & Medicine
TB vaccine gets a needed boost
An experimental vaccine against tuberculosis imparts significant immunity, but only in people who have previously received the existing bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine for TB.
