Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. Life in a Shell: A Physiologist’s View of a Turtle by Donald C. Jackson

    Buy this book A physiologist shows how shells have helped turtles survive virtually unchanged for 220 million years. Harvard Univ. Press, 2011, 178 p., $29.95.

  2. What Are Gamma-Ray Bursts? by Joshua S. Bloom

    Buy this book For readers willing to dive into (or skim past) a bit of math, this book surveys the latest research on these mysterious cosmic explosions. Princeton Univ. Press, 2011, 256 p., $27.95.

  3. Rabbits: The Animal Answer Guide (The Animal Answer Guides: Q&A for the Curious Naturalist) by Susan Lumpkin and John Seidensticker

    Buy this book Learn little-known facts about the familiar animals, whose 90 species include several of the world’s most endangered. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2011, 235 p., $24.95.

  4. Letters

    The liver’s carbon fixation The possibility that insects can harness solar energy (SN: 1/15/11, p. 8) is no less fascinating than the ability of the mammalian liver to do the light-independent part of photosynthesis: carbon fixation. When concentrations of the amino acid methionine rise after a high-protein meal, the liver shifts gears to get rid […]

  5. Health & Medicine

    Body & Brain

    The brain 'sees' Braille, plus engineered urethras and baseball practice swings in this week's news.

  6. Life

    Life

    Chimps are righties and orangutans lefties, plus singing mice and chilly dinosaurs in this week's news.

  7. Space

    Atom & Cosmos

    Buckyballs may abound in space, plus the latest on planets and solar siblings in this week's news.

  8. Science & Society

    Humans

    The sophisticated lives of early North Americans, plus third arms and drunken memories in this week's news.

  9. Chemistry

    Molecules/Matter & Energy

    Lasers 'draw' nanosized structures, plus twisty turbines and quantum vibrations in this week's news.

  10. Earth

    Earth/Environment

    The carbon footprint of Brazilian beef, plus the health effects of pollution and electrification in this week's news.

  11. Genes & Cells

    A lab mistake may have fingered virus for disease, plus proteins that thwart chemo and more in this week’s news.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Body & Brain

    Ibuprofen may help fend off Parkinson’s, plus bone boosters and smokers’ brains in this week’s news.