Uncategorized
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From the June 6, 1931, issue
LARGEST WIND TUNNEL AND TOWING CHANNEL FINISHED Aeronautic research took a stride forward when two outstanding pieces of apparatus for testing and improving aircraft–both the largest of their kind in the world–were officially put in operation last week by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at its Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Langley Field, Va. […]
By Science News - Math
Prime Twins
Number theory offers a host of problems that are remarkably easy to state but fiendishly difficult to solve. Many of these questions and conjectures feature prime numbers–integers evenly divisible only by themselves and 1. For instance, primes often occur as pairs of consecutive odd integers: 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 11 and 13, 17 […]
- Astronomy
Sounds of the universe confirm Big Bang
Two experiments examining the detailed structure of the cosmic microwave background, the relic radiation from the Big Bang, have confirmed the basic model of how cosmologists believe the universe evolved.
By Ron Cowen -
18945
Regarding this article, wherein Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) findings are surpassed by BOOMERANG (Balloon Observations of Millimeter Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics) data, can you help me understand what happened to the Microwave Anistropy Probe (MAP)? It was expected to surpass COBE in many ways. MAP was to launch in November 2000, establish a sun-sheltered position […]
By Science News -
Dormant bacteria may spawn infection
Clinicians' standard methods don't detect the dormant phase of a bacterium that commonly causes urinary tract infections in women.
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Undercooking makes germs strong
Precooking servings to sublethal temperatures before the final cooking actually makes germ killing more difficult.
By Janet Raloff -
18944
“Dirty money harbors bacterial dangers” brought back memories of my beloved grandmother in the 1920s. She always washed and ironed her dollar bills because she considered them to be unsanitary. F. Eleanor Warner Northport, Maine
By Science News -
Dirty money harbors bacterial dangers
More than half of 68 dollar bills collected at a high school sporting event and a grocery store in Ohio hosted bacteria that commonly infect poeple in hospitals or those with depressed immune systems.
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Breast milk battles thrush in infants
Human breast milk inhibits the growth of yeast spores, the source of the painful fungal infection of the mouth and throat that can be deadly for infants with AIDS.
- Health & Medicine
Heart disease linked to clotting gene
African Americans with a mutation in a blood-clotting gene have a sixfold increase in the risk of heart disease, but this is not the case for white Americans with the same mutation.
- Health & Medicine
Statins’ structure blocks cholesterol
X-ray crystallography shows that statins impede the build-up of cholesterol by physically blocking the binding site of an enzyme important for cholesterol production.
- Earth
Nations sign on to persistent-pollutants ban
The United States joined 126 other nations in signing a treaty to ban or phase out a dozen persistent and toxic pollutants.
By Janet Raloff