Uncategorized

  1. Tech

    Diagnosing the Developing World

    Researchers are learning how to adapt sophisticated technologies to meet the health-care needs of the developing world.

    By
  2. Code Breakers

    Chemical tags applied to proteins that DNA wraps around regulate genetic activity.

    By
  3. Animals

    Where’d I Put That?

    Birds that hide and recover thousands of separate caches of seeds have become a model for investigating how animals' minds work.

    By
  4. Math

    Turning a Snowball Inside Out

    Turning a sphere inside out without allowing any sharp creases along the way is a tricky mathematical maneuver. Carving an intricate snow sculpture depicting a crucial step in this twisty transformation presents its own difficulties. This was the challenge facing a team led by mathematician Stan Wagon of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., last […]

    By
  5. From the February 3, 1934, issue

    alt=”Click to view larger image”> SHORT-WAVE PHONE SYSTEM SERVES BRIDGE BUILDERS Curiously, radio is helping to build a bridge. Special short-wave transmitting and receiving sets make possible communication among groups of contractors scattered on land and water along the eight-and-one-quarter-mile route of work on the San Francisco-Oakland bridge. These men on the job also talk […]

    By
  6. Astronomy

    A Habitable Planet

    NASA offers kids a chance to search for and build a fictional planet on which people could live. This multimedia, interactive Web site guides students through a sequence of role-playing steps, starting with observations of the effects that changes to Earth can have and what’s needed for survival. Go to: http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov/

    By
  7. Science & Society

    Money Crunch: Tight budget leaves scientists disappointed

    In the federal budget for FY 2005, research and development funding for defense and homeland security gets a boost, but overall investment in science and technology is meager by comparison.

    By
  8. Ecosystems

    Mangrove Might: Nearby trees boost reef-fish numbers

    Coastal mangroves give an unexpectedly important boost to reef fish.

    By
  9. Gassing Up: Oxygen’s rise may have promoted complex life

    The increasing amount of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere may have driven the emergence of complex life.

    By
  10. Health & Medicine

    Early Warning? Inflammatory protein is tied to colon cancer risk

    C-reactive protein, an inflammatory protein linked to heart disease, might also signal susceptibility to colon cancer.

    By
  11. Humans

    Letters from the Feb. 7, 2004, issue of Science News.

    Warm topic I was fascinated by the article on heat production in flowers (“Warm-Blooded Plants?” SN: 12/13/03, p. 379: Warm-Blooded Plants?). It speculated on the evolutionary origins of such thermogenesis and observed how it predominates in ancient lineages of flowering plants like magnolias and water lilies. But thermogenesis goes back much farther than this, for […]

    By
  12. Physics

    Two New Elements Made: Atom smashups yield 113 and 115

    Two new elements—115 and 113—have joined the periodic table.

    By