More Stories from the January 28, 2012 issue
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HumansFewer fires in Africa these days
How flames spread, not how frequently people start them, controls burning on the continent.
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Life
Drugs activate dormant gene
A compound that blocks DNA unwinding can spur production of a critical brain protein in mice, leading to hope for a therapy for Angelman syndrome.
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Humans
Network analysis predicts drug side effects
A computer technique can foresee adverse events before medications are widely prescribed.
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Life
Pigeons rival primates in number task
Trained on one-two-three, the birds can apply the rule of numerical order to such lofty figures as five and nine.
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Paleontology
Early animals dethroned
Cell division patterns in controversial Chinese fossils place them outside the animal kingdom.
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Life
Staggered lessons may work better
Training at irregular intervals improves learning in sea snails.
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Chemistry
Molecule ties itself in a complex knot
Chemists synthesize a five-crossing structure centered on chloride.
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Life
Sun-oil mix deadly for young herring
Fish embryos proved surprisingly vulnerable to a 2007 spill in San Francisco Bay.
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Physics
Neutrino parents call into question faster-than-light results
The particles’ precursor doesn’t have enough energy to produce the speeds reported.
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Life
Three monkeys a genetic mishmash
Feat suggests embryonic stem cells are less flexible in primates than mice.
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Life
Crabs hither, shrimp thither
Biologists document surprising differences among deep-sea animals at hydrothermal vent fields.
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Science Past for January 27, 1962
“SPACE WHISKERS” GROWN FOR NEW SPACE MATERIALS — Microscopically small “space whiskers” are being grown by scientists at Rocketdyne, a division of North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, Calif., in search of methods of producing extremely strong new space materials. The fine filament-like crystals are being grown from many materials — lead, tin, copper, graphite, […]
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Science Future for January 28, 2012
February 9 Learn about the science of wine and even stomp some grapes with your bare feet at the Durham, N.C., Museum of Life + Science. See bit.ly/syIeOC February 13 Enjoy an after-hours tour highlighting displays of love in exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Learn more at bit.ly/zRko4O
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SN Online
SCIENCE & SOCIETYPlants, algae and fungi can now be named online and in English. Read “Botanists et al freed from Latin, paper.” Thomas Libby, Evan Chang-Siu, Pauline Jennings, Courtesy of PolyPEDAL Lab & CiBER/UC Berkeley LIFE Videos and robots show how reptiles use their tails to balance in midair. See “Measuring the leap of a […]
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You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself by David McRaney
Forty-six of the brain’s everyday fallacies and cognitive biases are highlighted in an expansion of the author’s blog about the neuroscience of self-delusion. Gotham Books, 2011, 300 p., $22.50
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Mushroom by Nicholas P. Money
Mushroom lore and history mingle with science and medicine in a biologist’s exploration of the fungal kingdom. Oxford, 2011, 201 p., $24.95
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Part Wild: One Woman’s Journey with a Creature Caught Between the Worlds of Wolves and Dogs by Ceiridwen Terrill
The cultural history and genetic story of dog domestication is told through the adventures of a wolf-husky hybrid adopted by a science writer. Simon & Schuster, 2011, 274 p., $25
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50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True by Guy P. Harrison
A journalist turns a skeptical eye on beliefs ranging from astrology to Atlantis, showing that scientific discovery can be just as fascinating as myth. Prometheus, 2011, 458 p., $18
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BOOK REVIEW: Who’s in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain by Michael S. Gazzaniga
In his new book, Gazzaniga drags readers kicking and screaming to the brink of an existential meltdown, and then rescues them with a dramatic twist at the end. Gazzaniga’s opening salvo: You are not the boss of your brain. The illusion of control is a sweet lie that people —including neuroscientists — tell themselves. Gazzaniga, […]
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BOOK REVIEW: My Beautiful Genome: Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time by Lone Frank
Personal genomes, compendiums of a person’s entire genetic makeup, are all the rage. Scientists have deciphered the genetic blueprints of thousands of people, with many more to come. And with the completion of these genetic instruction books, narratives about the genomic revolution have not been far behind. Danish science writer Frank’s offering is one of […]
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The Digital Camera Revolution
Take a grainy, blurred image of a formless face or an illegible license plate, and with a few keystrokes the picture sharpens and the killer is caught — if you’re a crime-scene tech on TV. From Harrison Ford in Blade Runner to CSI, Criminal Minds and NCIS, the zoom-and-enhance maneuver has become such a staple […]
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Head Agony
When Lewis Carroll sent Alice down the rabbit hole, she encountered a strange and twisted land with distortions of size and time. Some headache experts see something else — the possible ghosts of the author’s migraines, which can leave victims temporarily blinded, nauseated, hallucinatory, numb, unable to concentrate or seeking shelter from painful stings of […]
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Letters
The eyes have it Just finished the latest issue of your spectacular magazine. I’ve been a reader for many years, but this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write in. In the article about the tadpole (“Tiny voltage grows eyes in strange places,” SN: 12/31/11, p. 5), the final sentence is a quote […]
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Pharmacologist drinks heavy water in experiment
Read the full article (PDF) | Vote on future topic | Search archives February 9, 1935 | Vol. 27 | No. 722 Pharmacologist drinks heavy water in experiment Taking the risk of swallowing ten grams (about third of an ounce or teaspoonful) of “heavy water,” Prof. Klaus Hansen, Oslo University pharmacologist, reported that he had apparently suffered […]
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Auroras by Dan Bortolotti
Striking images illuminate this exploration of one of nature’s greatest light shows. Firefly, 2011, 143 p., $29.95