Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. King of Poisons: A History of Arsenic by John Parascandola

    This history of arsenic shows how the compound has been used, from candy to nefarious plots. Potomac Books, 2012, 197 p., $27.50

  2. David Douglas, a Naturalist at Work: An Illustrated Exploration Across Two Centuries in the Pacific Northwest by Jack Nisbet

    Discover the natural history of the Pacific Northwest through the tale of a naturalist who explored the region 200 years ago. Sasquatch Books, 2012, 191 p., $27.95

  3. BOOK REVIEW: The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos (CBC Massey Lecture) by Neil Turok

    Review by Alexandra Witze.

  4. BOOK REVIEW: Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan

    Review by Tom Siegfried.

  5. SN Online

    ATOM & COSMOS Listen to a recording of electromagnetic disturbances called chorus waves in “Extraterrestrial chorus heard in radiation belts.” Curiosity sends back results of its first full analysis of Martian soil, including signs of carbon. See “Mars rover deploys final instrument.” ON THE SCENE BLOG Scientists compete for best short sell in “Cell biologists […]

  6. Science Future for January 12, 2013

    February 11 Earliest launch date for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, the next generation in the U.S. Earth-observing satellite program. See bit.ly/SFlandsat February 12 Learn about the animal world in the New York Academy of Science’s program “Lust and Love in the Animal Kingdom” in New York City. See bit.ly/SFlust

  7. Science Past from the issue of January 12, 1963

    DAILY SCIENCE NEWSPAPER SEEN NECESSARY SOON — The increase in scientific research will make necessary a daily newspaper devoted to science in a short time if predictions made by Prof. Derek J. de Solla Price of Yale University to the American Association for the Advancement of Science are fulfilled. In the next decade there will […]

  8. Letters

    Early puberty’s cause Regarding “Early Arrival” (SN: 12/1/12, p. 26): In 1960 I left the Ohio Valley of grass- and corn-fed cows to teach in the Los Angeles area. When I arrived, I found that eighth- and ninth-grade girls looked physically like 25-year-old women in Ohio. I asked the other teachers what was going on. […]

  9. BOOK REVIEW: Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves by George Church and Ed Regis

    Review by Alexandra Witze.

  10. The Scientists: An Epic of Discovery by Andrew Robinson, ed.

    Short biographies of scientists through the ages, from Copernicus to Watson and Crick, illustrate where new ideas and discoveries come from. Thames & Hudson, 2012, 304 p., $45

  11. Human No More: Digital Subjectivities, Unhuman Subjects, and the End of Anthropology by Neil L. Whitehead and Michael Wesch, eds.

    Online worlds are re­defining what it means to be human, according to the authors of these anthropological essays on digital culture. Univ. Press of Colorado, 2012, 243 p., $75

  12. Space

    The Real Story of Risk: Adventures in a Hazardous World by Glenn Croston

    A biologist explores why humans are poor at judging risk — fearing rare shark attacks, for example, more than common heart attacks. Prometheus, 2012, 276 p., $19