Uncategorized
- Chemistry
Multiple Motions: Applied electrons make molecules vibrate and move
A new technique enables scientists to choreograph individual molecules to vibrate, break bonds, and move on a surface in specified ways.
- Earth
Count Down: Chemicals linked to inferior sperm
New data suggest that typical exposures to chemicals called phthalates are associated with reduced fertility in men, but the specific phthalates they finger aren't those that researchers most expected to cause problems.
- Humans
From the May 27, 1933, issue
CRYSTAL WONDERLAND You can see all these things through a microscope, as scientists and laymen have been seeing them for many years. But the way into this Lilliputia of the waters is being made even easier for you through the amazing artistry in glass of a worker at the American Museum of Natural History in […]
- Humans
Ring World
Ever wonder what it might be like to live on a doughnut-shaped world? NASA has created a Web page that gives you a sense of what life would be like in a ringlike structure out in space, where there is no gravity except the centrifugal force generated by the structure’s spin. Simulation requires a Java-enabled […]
- Math
Deciphering the Wrinkles of Crumpled Sheets
Crumpling is a ubiquitous, though poorly understood, physical phenomenon. It occurs when a fender absorbs the energy of a car crash, when Earth’s crust buckles at the interface between colliding tectonic plates to create a mountain range, when a blood cell’s membrane folds to allow the cell to pass through a narrow capillary, when a […]
- Humans
Test Flight: Young scientists earn—and spread—their wings
A century after two brothers from Ohio launched the first powered aircraft, more than 1,200 students from 31 countries descended on Cleveland to participate in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
- Chemistry
Detecting Lead: Sensor changes color for toxic metal
A new sensor using gold nanoparticles and tailor-made DNA strands offers simple and reliable detection of lead in paint.
- Planetary Science
Springtime on Neptune: Images hint at seasonal changes on distant planet
Belying its location in the deep freeze of the outer solar system, Neptune may undergo a change of seasons.
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Scripted Brains: Learning to read evokes hemispheric trade-off
From childhood through adolesence, the process of learning to read involves an amplification of specific types of left-brain activity and a dampening of right-brain responses, a new brain-imaging study finds.
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Bad Dancers: Childhood chills give bees six left feet
Honeybees kept just a bit cool when young grow up looking normal but dancing badly, which impedes their ability to communicate with other bees.
- Health & Medicine
Breathe Easier: Lung surgery aids some emphysema patients
Surgery to remove diseased portions of the upper lungs can help emphysema patients breathe more efficiently, depending on the patient's health and where the damaged tissues are.
- Earth
A Dam Shame? Project may slam China’s biodiversity
When the Three Gorges Dam begins to impound the waters of the Yangtze River in China later this year, dozens of mountains and other elevated areas upstream will become islands—an outcome that will probably devastate the rich diversity of species now living along the river.
