Uncategorized
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National Pi Day
National Pi Day—March 14—is a time to celebrate the number 3.14159. . . . Take a look at how this remarkable number has been honored in various settings, from a middle school classroom to the Exploratorium and Harvard University. Go to: http://www.germantownacademy.org/academics/MS/PiDay/Index.htm, http://www.winternet.com/~mchristi/piday.html, http://www.nvnet.org/nvhs/dept/math/pi.html, http://mathforum.org/teachers/middle/activities/pi_day.html, http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/pi/, and http://www.math.harvard.edu/piday/index.html
- Earth
Lowering the Boom? Impact crater may predate extinction of the dinosaurs
Analyses of sediments from the Yucatán in Mexico suggest that an extraterrestrial impact there more than 65 million years ago actually happened about 300,000 years before mass extinctions of dinosaurs occurred.
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Worst of Two Worlds: Hybrid mosquitoes spread West Nile virus
Interbreeding between two Old World mosquito species may explain why their blood-sucking brethren in the United States transmit West Nile virus to people as readily as they do.
- Humans
Letters from the March 6, 2004, issue of Science News
All we have to fear In “9/11’s Fatal Road Toll: Terror attacks presaged rise in U.S. car deaths” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 37: 9/11’s Fatal Road Toll: Terror attacks presaged rise in U.S. car deaths), it was assumed that people who switched from planes to cars after the terrorist attacks did so because of fear. However, […]
- Physics
Bubble Fusion: Once-maligned claim rebounds
Researchers who reported 2 years ago that they created nuclear-fusion reactions inside bubbles imploding in a vat of liquid acetone have now bolstered their controversial claim with new evidence.
- Anthropology
Early Ancestors Come Together: Humanity’s roots may lie in single, diverse genus
Newly discovered fossil teeth in eastern Africa that are more than 5 million years old suggest that the earliest members of the human family evolved as a single, anatomically diverse genus.
- Animals
Jungle Genes: First bird genome is decoded
Researchers have unveiled a draft of the first bird genome to be sequenced, a vintage chicken.
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Sunny Solution: Lotion speeds DNA repair, protects mice from skin cancer
Snippets of DNA that activate a cell's DNA repair process may protect mice from skin cancer caused by ultraviolet radiation.
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I know some people who carefully shield their bodies from the sun with sunscreen and clothing, and their skin is extremely pale. But if tanning acts as a protector, is it actually safer to maintain a “healthy” tan? Chris EsseBeverly Hills, Calif. Scientists continue to debate this question vigorously. Some say any tanning indicates skin-cell […]
- Planetary Science
Red Planet Makes a Splash: Rover finds gush of evidence for past water
A robotic rover on Mars has gathered what scientists are calling the best evidence to date that liquid water once flowed on the Red Planet.
- Chemistry
Clean hydrogen fuel from corn?
A new reactor can convert ethanol from corn into hydrogen fuel with enough efficiency to make the process economical.
- Tech
Silicon goes optical
The advent of a fast, light-manipulating microdevice made from silicon suggests that speedy optical-fiber links now too expensive for broad use in businesses and homes may soon become widespread.
