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Math

Defending the Roman Empire

Years ago, when I was in high school and college, the board games Risk and Diplomacy served as wonderful playing fields where I could develop and exercise my tactical and negotiating skills. One issue that often came up in my forays into international intrigue was how to deploy my limited forces to defend far-flung territories […]

Health & Medicine

More than a Kick

Nicotine ramps up activity throughout the body, making the drug a suspect in many tobacco-related ailments.

Math

Möbius at Fermilab

Fermilab’s Wilson Hall. Courtesy of Fermilab. Soaring into the sky like a medieval cathedral, the twin towers of the structure known as Wilson Hall dominate the flat countryside surrounding the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Ill. Named for physicist and accelerator builder Robert Rathbun Wilson (1914-2000), the building celebrates Wilson’s vision and skill, […]

Humans

From the October 11, 1930, issue

alt=”Click to view larger image”> $5,000 PRIZE TO PROF. BABCOCK FOR 40-YEAR-OLD INVENTION This week a senator gave a professor $5,000. There was in the transaction no hint of any cause for other senators to start an investigation, fond as senators have become of doing that sort of thing. On the contrary, everybody knew why […]

Humans

From the October 4, 1930, issue

alt=”Click to view larger image”> BORNEO MONKEYS IMITATE MEN WITH BOTH NOSE AND VOICE One of nature’s most striking living caricatures is the proboscis monkey that lives in the deep forests of Borneo. A group of these creatures shown as they appear in their home among the branches of a pongyet tree is on exhibition […]

Humans

From the September 27, 1930, issue

alt=”Click to view larger image”> NEW MEASURES MAY REVEAL BIGGER STARS After 8 years of preparation, the 50-foot interferometer at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California has been completed. Francis G. Pease, who used the smaller one, 20 feet in length, designed the new instrument and supervised its construction. The smaller one was attached to […]

Humans

From the September 20, 1930, issue

alt=”Click to view larger image”> KITCHEN IN POMPEII Pompeii and Herculaneum, most famous of tragic cities, are still showing the modern world new evidences of what everyday life was like 2,000 years ago. The new policy of excavators at Pompeii is to leave everything where it is found, if possible. The cooking stove shown on […]

Humans

From the March 18, 1933, issue

CAMERA PICTURES BEAUTY AND PROGRESS AT HOOVER DAM The photographer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has caught the spirit of the beginnings of Hoover dam in the picture reproduced on the front cover of this week’s Science News Letter. He was looking upstream toward the dam site when he snapped his camera. The structure […]

Tech

Invention Playhouse

Aimed at children, the “Invention at Play” Web site offers a variety of interactive activities to encourage and exercise creativity. Developed by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the site accompanies a traveling exhibit that looks at similarities between the way children play and creative processes used by science and technology […]

Math

Solving Yahtzee

Sometimes described as poker with dice, Yahtzee is an immensely popular game. Its manufacturer, Hasbro, claims that as many as 100 million people worldwide play the game regularly. Yahtzee involves rolling five dice with the aim of obtaining favorable scoring combinations. For example, rolling five of a kind scores 50 points, whereas rolling three of […]

Earth

Fallen Trees? Scotch pines emit nitrogen oxides into the air

Northern pine forests may exude nitrogen oxides—a contributor to smog and acid rain—in quantities that rival those produced by industry and traffic worldwide.

Humans

Science Flair: Top U.S. science and engineering students reap recognition, rewards

Forty finalists in the 2003 Intel Science Talent Search received recognition and more than $500,000 in scholarships for their efforts toward solving original problems in science and engineering.