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From the December 19 & 26, 1931, issues
SANTA CLAUS CAVALRYMEN BESTRIDE STRANGE STEEDS Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines bestrode an unfamiliar steed; but the gentleman in the cover picture mounts one more unfamiliar still. He might qualify as a trooper in the Santa Claus Cavalry, for he is mounted on a reindeer. According to the U.S. Biological Survey, reindeer are used […]
- Astronomy
Observing the sun’s magnetic pull
A spacecraft studying the sun has spotted clouds of gas that seem to be headed the wrong way, falling back toward the solar surface instead of continuing to move outward with the stream of charged particles known as the solar wind.
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If Your Poinsettia Sneezes. . .
For a winter holiday treat, try the vividly illustrated pages from the American Phytopathological Society on the poinsettia and its history and diseases. The Web site begins with the tale of how a Mexican beauty of limited range grew into the United States’ best-selling flowering plant. Subsequent pages document the abundant spots, rots, and other […]
- Astronomy
A night of shooting stars
Thousands of people in North America who got up early on Nov. 18 were treated to a memorable sky show: White, yellow, blue, and green fireballs, some leaving behind smoke trails, streaked across the sky.
- Health & Medicine
Sometimes lying down is harder work
Squatting or standing might ease baby delivery by allowing the birth canal more room to expand.
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19047
Reading this article was to me like déj vu. In the late 1950s, my late colleague Raoul Naroll concluded that more than 90 percent of the world’s cultures preferred the upright position for giving birth. In my own work with Martha Austin Garrison on Navajo birthing practices, we elicited many comments by older Navajos. Without […]
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Science News of the Year 2001
A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2001.
- Math
Guessing Cards
Card-guessing tricks give a magician the opportunity to show off his or her mind-reading prowess. In many cases, the illusion of mind reading arises not from sleight of hand but as a consequence of some mathematical principle. One of the most startling of such prediction tricks is known as the Kruskal count, named for Rutgers […]
- Health & Medicine
Ultrasound boosts drug delivery to tumors
A beam of ultrasound can make the blood vessels that infiltrate cancerous growths leakier than normal.
- Astronomy
Journey through the Universe
A new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum traces the development of tools used to study the heavens and how they have changed our understanding of the universe.
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19046
This article illustrates the importance of astronomical instruments by suggesting that Copernicus was not “proved right” until the development by Tycho Brahe of sophisticated observational tools late in the 16th century. I think this is a misleading example. Tycho’s records did allow his one-time assistant Johannes Kepler to move closer to “proving” Copernicus right, early […]
- Health & Medicine
Weak appetite in elderly ties to hormone
A hormone known to suppress appetite is more abundant in seniors than in young adults and has a greater effect in squelching hunger in elderly people.
