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18948
The interesting article “Survey probes cosmos from near to far” set me to tilting at windmills. Even before it’s completed, the professional astronomers managing the Sloan Digital Sky Survey should enlist amateur astronomers as asteroid hunters in a way similar to how they’re mobilized by the SETI@home project to search for intelligent signals from space. […]
By Science News -
MathMöbius Accordion
Artist Susan Happersett of Jersey City, N.J., has come up with a novel twist on the venerable Möbius strip: a playful, eye-catching creation she describes as a Möbius accordion. Happersett Accordion Susan Happersett Thirteen Original Colonies. Susan Happersett Happersett Accordion Susan Happersett A Möbius strip, or band, is the remarkable one-sided surface that results from […]
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PhysicsPitching Science
A new computer model of baseball pitching helps give pitching robots humanlike abilities and may have enabled engineers to solve a half-century-old puzzle of baseball science.
By Peter Weiss -
Cardinal girls learn faster than boys
A female cardinal learns about as many songs as a male but in one-third the time.
By Susan Milius -
Flush-pursuers fake out fleeing prey
Birds that advertise their presence to potential prey may improve their chances of catching a meal.
By Kelly Malcom -
Health & MedicineNew guidelines would cut cholesterol
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has developed new guidelines for physicians that could triple the number of people taking cholesterol-lowering medication.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineAngiostatin testing in people begins
Angiostatin, a drug that cured cancer in mice, appears safe to use in preliminary tests on people with cancer.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineMalaria prevention works in Tanzania
Giving infants intermittent doses of antimalarial drugs during their first year prevents serious illness in most cases and doesn't leave them susceptible to harsh disease in their second year.
By Nathan Seppa -
18947
It was a bit of a shame that the fossil-trackway site pictured on the cover of the June 9 issue was not identified, as it is one of the more remarkable ones ever uncovered in North America . The tracks shown are a few of hundreds across the floor of a quarry near Culpeper, Va. […]
By Science News -
PaleontologyBeyond Bones
The forensic analysis of trace fossils such as footprints, nests, burrows, and even coprolites—fossilized feces—reveal subtle clues about ancient species, their behavior, and their environment.
By Sid Perkins -
18946
Pluto is distinguished by properties other than its size, and its representation in “Nine planets, or eight?” as just another gray ball was misleading. It has the most contrasting surface known in the solar system (bright nitrogen ice caps and dark carbonaceous equatorial areas). To understand the processes ongoing on Pluto’s surface and within its […]
By Science News -