All Stories by Science News
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18966
One cannot be around cats long without observing that they have intelligence and personalities nearly as complex and diverse as people do. They communicate with each other and people, both verbally and with body language. They have preferences for whom they associate with, both human and feline, and those can change. I think that complexity […]
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From the September 12, 1931 issue
ELEPHANTS JAWBONE SHOWS LIKENESS TO SCOOP SHOVEL Where the idea of the present-day scoop shovel came from is suggested in the illustration on the cover of this weeks Science News Letter. When President Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American Museum of Natural History received the weird lower jawbone of an ancient Asian elephant, he was […]
- Physics
Caught in a Flash
View the tip of a snapped towel (which moves faster than the speed of sound), then take a look at a bursting water balloon, a collapsing water drop, a tennis ball in mid-collision with a racket, and many other amazing images in this gallery of high-speed photos snapped by high school students. Sorry! This Web […]
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18965
The article says that evidence of past climate variations in Antarctica may invalidate global warming as a cause for the recent demise of several ice shelves in that area. Isn’t the length of time over which the changes occurred the critical thing? If the changes are occurring over roughly the same time span as they […]
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Human Cloning
Did you miss last month’s National Academy of Sciences workshop on scientific and medical aspects of human cloning? You can listen to the recorded presentations via RealPlayer (use the links at Workshop Agenda) and view the accompanying slides (see Speaker Presentations). Go to: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/COSEPUP/Workshop_Agenda.html –updated 8/26/03–VM.
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From the September 5, 1931, issue
SEEING EYE TO EYE WITH A WHITE WASP The medieval Japanese, who sometimes closed up the fronts of their helmets with ferocious metal masks painted with vivid war paint, knew the right psychology for hand-to-hand encounters. It is much more disconcerting to be confronted with an immobile, wholly artificial hobgoblin face than to see that […]
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From the August 29, 1931, issue
HUGE GENERATORS YIELD BEAUTY TO PHOTOGRAPHER Throbbing electric generators, the machines that are the heart of the great system supplying light and power to more than 120 millions, are odd and beautiful subjects for the talented photographer. In the picture on the cover, Rittase of Philadelphia has caught the spirit of one of the largest […]
- Tech
Reading Faces
Facial expressions can convey emotional nuances that words fail to communicate. Researcher Terrence Sejnowski has developed a computer program that analyzes images of human faces, purportedly matching the skills of professionals trained to read fleeting expressions of emotion. Learn more in an online article from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s HHMI Bulletin and at the […]
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18971
In the photograph of X-ray jets and point sources in the galaxy Centaurus A, shown in “Shocks jolt jet set galaxy, X rays reveal,” many of the point sources seem to be regularly spaced along arcs. The pattern is reminiscent of an X-ray diffraction pattern from a crystal (a microscopic event mirrored here on a […]
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Door to Antiquity
The Phimai temple complex in Thailand was an important Khmer economic, religious, and military center about 1,000 years ago. Richard M. Levy of the University of Calgary has created an elaborate computer reconstruction of this historic site, allowing visitors to wander the complex without traveling all the way to Thailand. Go to: http://www.phimai.ca/
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From the August 22, 1931, issue
THE GIRL ON THE COVER Her name is Janet Penserosa. She is about four years old and her home is at the New York Zoological Park. And now she can claim the distinction of being the first female gorilla to survive in Gothams animal center. Not only that, but she is probably the only gorilla […]
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18970
“Vaccine verity” describes several parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated, citing rumors. These people are gambling in a casino they don’t understand. Since the risk of their child developing a serious disease is still low, they will no doubt say, “See, vaccination isn’t necessary.” But parents who bet against vaccines and lost might […]
