Uncategorized
- Earth
To contain gene-altered crops, nip them in the seed
Researchers have demonstrated that, in principle, they can add genes that block genetically modified crops from breeding with conventional varieties and thus from spreading their artificial traits.
- Math
Uncovering a prime failure
Mathematicians have returned to the drawing board after what looked like a dramatic step forward in understanding prime numbers.
- Anthropology
Humanity’s pedestal lowered again?
A new genetic study reaches the controversial conclusion that chimpanzees belong to the genus Homo, just as people do.
-
19243
The discovery that humans share 99.4 percent of their genetic sequences with chimps does not make chimps like us in any meaningful sense or lower “humanity’s pedestal” in the slightest degree. In some 5 million years on Earth the sum total of chimps’ cultural achievements has been exactly 0. In only 200,000 years, modern humans […]
- Health & Medicine
Gene therapy thwarts hepatitis C in mice
Gene therapy that induces infected liver cells to self-destruct slows hepatitis C dramatically in mice.
- Physics
Taking a shine to number 100
Scientists for the first time literally shed light on the properties of radioactive fermium.
-
19323
For those of us who know how to draw and understand the varieties of linear perspective, David Hockney’s proposal that the old masters used optical aids rings true. One of his examples will suffice: The uncanny accuracy of difficult-to-depict patterns in folding cloth in works of the early 1400s is an indication that optical aids […]
- Physics
Reflections on Art
By dissecting famous paintings in new ways, scientists are testing the veracity of artist David Hockney's controversial theory that some masters of Renaissance art secretly used optical projection devices.
- Math
Measuring with Jugs
Given a 5-liter jug, a 3-liter jug, and an unlimited supply of water, how do you measure out exactly 4 liters? In her book In Code: A Mathematical Journey, Sarah Flannery gives this classic brainteaser as an example of the sorts of playful puzzles that her father, a mathematics lecturer at the Cork Institute of […]
- Physics
Light Switch: Crystal flaws tune the wavelengths
By tweaking the crystal structure of the semiconductor gallium arsenide, researchers may have found a way to make cheaper components for fiberoptic networks.
- Health & Medicine
Flawed Therapy: Hormone replacement takes more hits
Elderly women taking estrogen and progestin are more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, and stroke than are women not taking the hormones.
-
Gut Check
The normal microbial inhabitants of our intestines do a lot for their host.
