Uncategorized
- Physics
Squashed spheres set a record for filling space
Modestly deformed spheres can stack with unexpected compactness.
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Does it really take a team of scientists running computer simulations to come up with the common sense that the greater the common surface area of two objects that touch, the more efficient the stacking? The closer objects are to being flat, the more efficiently they will stack. Hence ellipses will, of course, stack more […]
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis C drugs are less effective in black patients
A standard drug combination for hepatitis C is less likely to knock out the virus in blacks than in whites.
- Health & Medicine
Narcolepsy Science Reawakens
Recent advances in understanding the biological underpinnings of narcolepsy have created a new diagnostic tool and point toward possible future therapies.
- Tech
Sixth Sense
A budding technology called electric field imaging may soon enable devices such as appliances, toys, and computers to detect the presence of people and respond to their motions.
- Humans
From the June 9, 1934, issue
Mexican archaeology, dry ice for shrinking metals, and choosing optimal flight paths for airplanes.
- Math
Groups, Graphs, and Erdös Numbers
Erdös numbers reveal the great extent of mathematical collaboration.
- Earth
Newspaper’s Footprint: Environmental toll of all the news that’s fit to print
The environmental impacts of getting a newspaper dropped on your doorstep each morning vastly outweigh those of receiving the same information via a handheld electronic device.
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Horvath and Toffel’s comparison of the environmental impacts of the paper versus the electronic editions of the New York Times is a bit misleading. A personal digital assistant isn’t good for advertising or newspaper browsing. In other words, the PDA users aren’t getting a comparable product. Still, the day is probably not too far off […]
- Chemistry
Weighty Discovery: Chemical screening technique identifies potential anthrax drug
A new version of mass spectrometry could speed the process of drug discovery by enabling more accurate screening of thousands of chemicals at once.
- Animals
Well-Tuned Bats: These animals are what they hear
Two studies of bats find that neighbors can live in virtually different worlds because their echolocation calls are tuned to detect different prey.
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Genetic Pickup: Did animals get brain genes from bacteria?
Genes that make brain chemicals may have been acquired from bacteria.
