Uncategorized
- Math
Seven-Game World Series
In professional baseball’s World Series, the championship is decided in a best-of-seven format. The first team to win four games gets the pennant. Curiously, series that go on for the full seven games appear to occur more often than simple probability arguments would suggest. Suppose that two, evenly matched teams have made it to the […]
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- Physics
Super Spinner: Seven-atom speck acts like superfluid
Scientists have for the first time directly observed the onset in liquid helium of superfluidity—a quantum-mechanical state in which liquids flow without friction—as helium atoms accumulated one by one to form a droplet of liquid around a gas molecule.
- Paleontology
Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along: Dinosaur buoyancy may explain odd tracks
New lab experiments and computer analyses may explain how some of the heftiest four-legged dinosaurs ever to walk on Earth could have left trackways that include the imprints of only their front feet.
- Astronomy
When really big winds collide
A newly released image shows dramatic details of the Crescent nebula, a giant gaseous shell created by outbursts of a massive star about to explode as a supernova.
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Bad for the Bones: Thwarted hormone leads to skeletal decay
Thyroid-stimulating hormone plays an unexpected role in bone remodeling.
- Health & Medicine
First Viruses, Now Tumors: AIDS drug shows promise against brain cancers
A potential AIDS drug may also slow the growth of deadly brain tumors.
- Tech
Timing Is Everything: Implantable polymer chip delivers meds on schedule
A polymer microchip implanted under the skin could deliver multiple doses of medications at programmed intervals, eliminating the need for pills and injections.
- Earth
Chicken Little? Study cites arsenic in poultry
Most chicken eaten in the United States contains 3 to 4 times as much arsenic as is present in other kinds of meat and poultry.
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IQ Yo-Yo: Test changes alter retardation diagnoses
Mental retardation placements in U.S. schools rose dramatically in the first five years after a commonly used IQ test was revised, raising concerns about how IQ scores are used to diagnose mental retardation.
- Astronomy
Vanishing planet
An object orbiting a distant star is too heavy to be a planet, researchers have concluded.
- Astronomy
Extrasolar planet gets heavier
An extrasolar planet that tightly orbits its parent star is heavier than astronomers had thought.
