All Stories by Science News
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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 […]
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From the December 12, 1931, issue
SCIENCE AT THE WORLDS CROSSROADS Everybody has heard of Barro Colorado, the hill that was turned into an island, and was set aside as a great animal sanctuary; but only a few persons have ever set foot on it. In the nature of things, an animal sanctuary cannot be opened to crowds of visitors, so […]
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Wondering About
Stimulating scientific curiosity is one aim of questions posed at the “Did You Ever Wonder. . ?” Web page, produced by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Sample questions: How would you rebuild the surface of a cell, and how can you carve with light? Answers to the questions, colorfully illustrated and presented in language accessible to […]
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19045
The methane and carbon monoxide released during charcoal production have short atmospheric lifetimes compared with that of fossil fuel carbon dioxide. In the long run, the net effect of charcoal on the climate is nil because the wood used to produce charcoal was formed from carbon dioxide by photosynthesis. Recommending that nations convert from charcoal […]
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18980
Everyone seems to agree that the Tyrannosaurus rex Sue was seriously debilitated with perhaps a lifelong lameness. Peter L. Larson attributes her survival to care and feeding by group members. Is there evidence of group care for the injured among reptiles of any era? Might Sue’s survival be due not to group care but simply […]
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18979
The work in this article does show nonlinearity of cell damage from alpha radiation in the dose range studied, but the lowest dose studied (5 percent of all cell nuclei hit) is probably several orders of magnitude above the mean lethal dose for any organism. The researchers need to look at linearity through the dose […]
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19044
The discussion of photon entanglement in this article invokes the debatable premise that physical facts are not real unless they are observed. The article’s own glove metaphor provides a perfect counterexample. Suppose I receive a package of gloves (entangled particles) from a glove factory (particle generator), each glove wrapped individually. I keep one and send […]
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Live from Antarctica
Mixing live Webcasts with interactive presentations, San Francisco’s Exploratorium documents a journey to Antarctica. Team members interview scientists, dive and film underwater, climb a volcano, and visit a vast frigid desert. The Web site also features reference material on a variety of topics, including how fish adapt to icy waters, and views of the continent’s […]
