More Stories from the February 26, 2011 issue
- Earth
Glaciers largely stable in one range of Himalayas
Amid icy retreats in neighboring ranges, ice in Karakoram region may even be growing, thanks to debris cover.
- Health & Medicine
U.S. lags in life expectancy gains
Among developed countries, Americans spend the most on health care even as they fall behind in extending longevity, a new study finds.
- Math
Unnatural selection
Inflicting damage on targeted species can help preserve perturbed ecosystems.
- Earth
Dispersants persisted after BP spill
Chemicals used to break up oil remained in the Gulf’s depths months after being released, an analysis shows.
- Humans
Hints of earlier human exit from Africa
New finds suggest surprisingly early migrations by Homo sapiens out of Africa through an oasis-studded Arabia.
- Life
Pneumonia drugs helped evolve a superbug
As told through DNA from historical samples, a deadly bacterium reveals how it developed the ability to evade antibiotics and a vaccine.
- Health & Medicine
Prosthetics that feel
Re-creating a 'sense of touch' for prosthetic limbs may someday improve how people use them.
- Humans
Amoebas in drinking water: a double threat
Analysis reveals widespread, hidden contamination by the sometimes lethal parasites.
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‘Love’ hormone has a dark side
Often associated with feelings of closeness, oxytocin can make people more or less trusting depending on their underlying social outlook.
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- Physics
Invisibility cloaks hit the big time
Using natural crystals, researchers have found a way to make objects up to a few millimeters tall disappear.
- Life
Ants manage incest without inbreeding
An unorthodox family structure may have helped longhorn crazy ants spread around the globe.
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- Space
Spacecraft sees signs of 1,200-plus worlds
The Kepler mission releases information on hundreds of newly discovered candidate planets beyond the solar system, including about 50 that could be habitable.
- Health & Medicine
Bioengineering better blood vessels
Durable conduits made with a tough protein produced by living cells might improve options for some patients who need heart bypass surgery or kidney dialysis, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
No flu vaccine link to Guillain-Barré syndrome found
A massive study of millions of people in China finds no association between receiving the 2009 H1N1 immunization and developing the rare nervous system disorder.
- Physics
X-raying life’s microscopic machinery
A powerful new laser technique promises to reveal the cell’s molecular components in detailed, 3-D images.
- Space
First stars may still shine
Simulations suggest some slow-burning remnants of the early universe may still exist.
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Science Future for February 26, 2011
February 28 Learn about the good and bad of fat tissue at an afternoon symposium in New York City. Go to www.nyas.org/events March 7 At the Houston Museum of Natural Science, a geneticist describes efforts to track humanity’s migratory routes with DNA. See www.hmns.org March 11–12 Dig into the past at the Milwaukee Archaeology Fair. […]
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The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America’s Unburied Dead by Ann Fabian
A historian looks back at skull collecting in America and examines how cranial size was used to justify racism. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2010, 270 p., $27.50.
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A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science by Cathryn J. Prince
How a meteorite that struck Weston, Conn., in 1807 spurred a Yale chemist to help build the foundations of American scientific research. Prometheus, 2010, 254 p., $26.
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Quantum Physics for Poets by Leon M. Lederman and Christopher T. Hill
Two physicists convey the enigmas of the quantum world in clear and compelling prose. Prometheus, 2011, 338 p., $28.
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Soap, Science, and Flat-Screen TVs: A History of Liquid Crystals by David Dunmur and Tim Sluckin
Learn how liquid crystals were discovered and how they eventually became the standard in display technology. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010, 345 p., $53.95.
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Book Review: Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley
Review by Susan Milius.
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The costs of putting knowledge into the wrong hands
As a chemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., David Nichols studies psychedelic compounds in a quest to understand the brain, often creating new compounds as part of his research. He was recently dismayed to find himself cited by name in a newspaper article about an amateur chemist who scours the scientific literature for […]
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Rivers in the sky
Atmospheric bands of water vapor can cause flooding and extreme weather
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Cerebral Delights
The amygdala, a part of the brain known for its role in fear, also helps people spot rewards — and go after them.
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Brain Boosters
Some nutritional supplements provide real food for thought.
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Letters
Religion at Sacred Ridge? I follow your magazine with zeal. I was somewhat surprised by “Massacre at Sacred Ridge” (SN: 11/6/10, p. 22), which seems to attribute the slaughter to some action by those who were murdered and does not discuss potential religious overtones of the attack. Is organized religion the culprit in this incident? […]
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Science Past from the issue of February 25, 1961
TRAFFIC CONGESTION SEEN AS FUTURE SPACE PROBLEM— Traffic congestion may be one of the most serious problems man may have to face when he starts commuting regularly from earth to outer space. This new frontier gradually is becoming cluttered with earth-launched orbiting vehicles and other debris.… [A]stronomical observatories, weather, TV and other communication satellites as […]
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Moon: A Brief History by Bernd Brunner
Revisit the wonders of Earth’s next-door neighbor with this cultural and scientific exploration. Yale Univ. Press, 2010, 290 p., $25.
