More Stories from the February 12, 2011 issue
- Space
New planet small but tough
Astronomers have confirmed a rocky planet outside the solar system for the first time.
- Space
Planck telescope finds cold, weird wonders
Survey's first results reveal the largest galaxy clusters and most frigid objects found in universe so far.
- Health & Medicine
When good cholesterol is even better
It's quality, not just quantity, of high-density lipoprotein that counts in heart disease, study suggests.
- Space
Neighboring black hole puts on weight
Galaxy M87's massive heart weighs as much as 6.6 billion suns.
- Humans
Marking penguins for study may do harm
Metal flipper bands used to tell birds apart hamper survival and reproduction, a 10-year study finds.
- Paleontology
Early meat-eating dinosaur unearthed
Pint-sized, two-legged runner from Argentina dates back to the dawn of the dinos, 230 million years ago.
- Earth
2010 ties record for warmest year yet
El Ni±o heated things up even as global temperatures continue to rise in the hottest decade on record.
- Psychology
The write stuff for test anxiety
A brief writing exercise prompts higher exam scores for students struggling with academic stress.
- Math
Fruit flies teach computers a lesson
Insect's nerve cell development is a model of efficiency for sensing networks.
- Humans
Reviving the taste of an Iron Age beer
Malted barley from a 2,550-year-old Celtic settlement offers savory insights into ancient malt beverage.
- Life
Making a worm do more than squirm
A laser used for locomotion control shines light on nematode behavior, one cell at a time.
- Life
Old amoebas spawn their farms
Some slime molds use a simple form of agriculture to ensure a steady food supply.
- Physics
Tevatron to shut down in September
Citing a lack of funds, the U.S. Department of Energy has essentially pulled out of the race to make the next great discovery in particle physics.
- Life
Plastic-lined nests keep rivals at bay
A tangle of shopping bag scraps tells black kites in a Spanish national park that another bird’s home is not to be messed with.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine against cocaine makes headway
Injections gin up antibodies in mice that limit the drug's effects, a new study shows.
- Psychology
Kids’ friendships sometimes illusory
A substantial minority of third to sixth graders think they're tight with a classmate who actually dislikes them.
- Chemistry
Wee work-around lets microbes thrive
Some crafty, salt-loving cells use stolen equipment for processing a key cellular building block.
- Animals
Chimps wear personalities on their mugs
Humans can assess the dominance of their close evolutionary relatives by glancing at the apes’ expressionless faces.
- Humans
Intel Science Talent Search picks top 40
High school researchers to present original work in Washington, D.C.
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Science Future for February 12, 2011
February 15Discuss controversy over nonnative species at the University of Minnesota’s natural history museum happy hour. See www.bellmuseum.org February 17Author Sam Kean regales New York City with tales of the periodic table. Go to www.nyas.org February 17Cybersecurity experts address hazards of the digital age at Chicago’s Northwestern University. See http://c2st.org
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Geographies of Mars: Seeing and Knowing the Red Planet by K. Maria D. Lane
Explore Mars as scientists and the public saw it around the beginning of the 20th century, when canals on the Red Planet seemed a very real possibility. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2010, 265 p., $45.
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Convergence solves problems that don’t fit in one field
In January the American Association for the Advancement of Science hosted a panel in Washington, D.C., on the emerging field of convergence, which integrates engineering, the physical sciences and life sciences to solve problems in health care, energy and other sectors. Speakers described the movement as an integration of disciplines that will require changes to […]
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Alphabet of Life
Searching for clues to the genetic code's origin.
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Sizing up the Electron
Measuring the inner shape of the famous particle could help solve a cosmic mystery.
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In the Zone
Evolution may have trained the mind to see scoring streaks — even where they don't exist.
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Letters
Quantum quirkinessYour special issue on quantum weirdness (SN: 11/20/10, p. 15) was certainly the best presentation I have ever seen. You folks are geniuses and what you did was little short of incredible. It will be difficult (probably impossible) to top it, but keep up the good work. As an aside, could you include more […]
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Science Past for February 11, 1961
RELIEVE ARTHRITIC JOINTS — Chronically inflamed arthritic joints can be relieved, but not cured, by injecting cortisone-related steroids, or hormone drugs, directly into the joint. Repeated injections, up to 142 times in one case, had no apparently harmful effect, three doctors report in the Bulletin of Rheumatic Diseases, Jan., 1961. Some 4,000 patients at the […]
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The Great White Bear: A Natural and Unnatural History of the Polar Bear by Kieran Mulvaney
Starting with the fact that polar bears have black skin, this book offers surprises and up-to-date information about the Arctic’s iconic top predator. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, 251 p., $26.
