More Stories from the April 9, 2011 issue
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Health & Medicine‘Diabetes Belt’ outlined
The Deep South and Appalachia show a high prevalence linked to obesity, poor educational achievement and a sedentary lifestyle, a study shows.
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Space
The best next space missions
The National Research Council issues recommendations for planetary science projects that NASA and NSF should fund starting in 2013.
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Humans
Missing bits of DNA may define humans
Genetic information lost along the way may have led to bigger brains and spineless penises, among other traits.
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Humans
In-laws transformed early human society
A study of today's hunter-gatherers finds marital relationships help spread a social fabric.
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Earth
How continents do the splits
East African seismic study reveals how land gives way to ocean crust.
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Paleontology
New dinosaur species is titanic
Titanoceratops may be the oldest known member of the triceratops group.
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Humans
The psychological toll of miscarriage can linger for years, plus bilingual timelines and twisted morality in this week’s news.
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Life
Antibiotics may make fighting flu harder
The drugs kill helpful bacteria that keep the immune system primed against viral infections.
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Humans
New stars of science honored in D.C.
The 2011 Intel Science Talent Search awards prizes to 10 young researchers.
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Life
Don’t trust any elephant under 60
Herds with older leaders are more attuned to danger, a study finds.
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Earth
Japan quake location a surprise
Based on regional tectonics, seismologists expected the biggest events in the island's southern half.
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Astronomy
New study gives dark energy a boost
Measurements provide further evidence for a cosmic push that is accelerating the expansion of the universe.
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Humans
Record ozone thinning looms in Arctic
Depletion could expose the northern midlatitudes to higher-than-normal ultraviolet radiation in coming weeks.
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Life
Computer chips wired with nerve cells
Experiments could lead to ways of melding minds with machines.
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Science Future for April 9, 2011
April 16 The American Museum of Natural History in New York City opens an exhibit exploring the world’s largest dinosaurs. Visit www.amnh.org April 22 Learn about the planet and its ecology at events around the country. Go to www.earthday.org April 28 Sample the science of chocolate at an evening of entertainment in Durham, N.C. See […]
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The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley
This illustrated field guide shows each bird in lifelike scenes using the author’s photos. Princeton Univ. Press, 2011, 529 p., $35.
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Fast Car Physics by Chuck Edmondson
Fans of fast wheels and science alike will get a charge from this look at motor sports by a physicist and amateur race car driver. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2011, 229 p., $29.95.
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Loving + Hating Mathematics by Reuben Hersh and Vera John-Steiner
Tales of mathematicians’ engagement with their subject bring to life this examination of the human and cultural aspects of math. Princeton Univ. Press, 2011, 416 p., $29.95.
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The Most Human Human by Brian Christian
The Turing test competition, an annual search for the most “human” computer, is the thread in this tour through the makings of human intelligence. Doubleday, 2011, 303 p., $27.95.
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Book Review: The Natural Navigator: A Watchful Explorer’s Guide to a Nearly Forgotten Skill by Tristan Gooley
Before navigation was a science, it was an art — a craft that relied on observing nature’s subtle clues and then deducing one’s location or the best route to reach a destination. Besides obvious directional clues such as the rising sun or Polaris, the North Star, there are innumerable more subtle signposts. In the Northern […]
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Book Review: Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams
The great sea beast, with slimy tentacles and a penchant for dragging sailors down into the inky depths, is a common literary figure. And Williams isn’t shy about diving into those myths. She launches her survey of cephalopods, a group that includes squid, octopuses and cuttlefish, with a quote from Pirates of the Caribbean and […]
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Japan crisis may have little effect on U.S. energy policy
Whatever the ultimate repercussions of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident in Japan (see Page 6), the crisis raises questions over the role nuclear power should play as an energy source. Michael Levi, head of the energy security and climate change program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, spoke to reporters […]
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Backup Bees
Farms of the future could offer some strange sights, and California isn’t a bad place to go searching for them. On the edge of a yet-to-be-planted field northwest of Bakersfield, for example, stands what looks like a white clothes closet that has run away from home. An experiment in California aims to see if blue […]
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Star Cents
It will be the largest telescope ever launched into space, with a mirror that has about six times the light collecting area of Hubble’s. When the James Webb Space Telescope flies later this decade, its unparalleled infrared vision will record the flickers of the first stars and galaxies to light up the universe, in a […]
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Big Fishing Yields Small Fish
Sharks, billfish, cod, tuna and other fish-eating fish — the sea’s equivalents to lions on the Serengeti — dominated the marine world as recently as four decades ago. They culled sick, lame and old animals and kept populations of marine herbivores in check, preventing marine analogs of antelopes from overgrazing their environment. A net of […]
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Letters
Water at the start, and later “Liquid acquisition” (SN: 1/15/11, p. 26) discusses two new models about how Earth got its water. But the two models are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, I wonder if perhaps two (or more) sources of water may be the only way to match all of the observed isotopic abundances. Is […]
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Science Past from the issue of April 8, 1961
REMAKE VENUS ‘WEATHER’ — Man can land on the mystery planet Venus after making its air suitable for humans. This job could be done by dropping primitive plants into the planet’s atmosphere, then waiting for results. The primitive algae would remove the carbon dioxide believed to poison the air on Venus for humans. The result […]
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Craving Earth by Sera L. Young
Human biology and culture are interwoven in this exploration of pica, the craving to eat clay, dirt, starch and other nonfood substances. Columbia Univ. Press, 2011, 228 p., $29.50.