Uncategorized
- Earth
Humming Along: Ocean waves may cause global seismic noise
The slow and nearly constant vibrations of Earth's crust stem from severe winter weather over some of the world's oceans.
- Physics
Wake Up, Little Surfers: Riding waves toward tabletop accelerators
Prospects that today's giant particle accelerators could shrink to the size of rooms look better than ever, now that new experiments have produced electron pulses of uniform energy from laser-powered accelerators that act over millimeter distances.
- Astronomy
Big Smash: Galaxy clusters in collision
Astronomers have unveiled the most detailed image ever taken of the collision of two clusters of galaxies.
- Chemistry
Buckyballs at Bat: Toxic nanomaterials get a tune-up
The soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecules known as buckyballs are toxic to human cells, yet coating the particles can switch off their toxicity.
- Planetary Science
Tiny scope spies distant planet
Using a telescope not much bigger than Galileo's, astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting a star 500 light-years from Earth.
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As a decaf drinker, I found myself shouting, “What about caffeine”?” as I read your article. How can any report not, at least, mention its involvement or lack thereof? Greg TulloRaleigh, N.C. Researcher Pertti Happonen suspects that caffeine was responsible for the effects seen in his study, but since Finns don’t drink much decaf, he […]
- Health & Medicine
Coffee’s curious heart effects
Very high or low daily consumption of coffee appears to pose far more of a heart risk than drinking moderately.
- Physics
Marrying matter and light
Physicists have created circuit components that, in a manner analogous to atoms, meld with light, opening new ways to study fundamental light-matter interactions.
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The tree of life, with tangled roots
Two ancient, rudimentary organisms merged to create the first complex cell, new data suggest.
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Schizophrenia takes fatal turn in China
Suicides among people with schizophrenia are a major public-health concern in China.
- Anthropology
Ancient head case
A 1.8-million-year-old Homo erectus skullcap came from a 1-year-old child whose brain grew at a rate more like that of chimpanzees than of people.
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19464
I was pleased to read that one of the most mathematically pretty sphere-stacking arrangements (the lovely 24-cell) occurs in four dimensions. The nice thing about four dimensions is that, by letting time be one dimension and using a good three-dimensional computer-graphics package, the arrangement can be viewed on a computer. Dan RyanPhiladelphia, Pa.
