More Stories from the June 29, 2013 issue
- Space
Moon’s water may have earthly origins
Ratio of hydrogen to deuterium suggests molecule on both orbs has a common source.
- Life
Exploration forges differences in identical twins
Mice with the same genes and surroundings diverged in brain development depending on how much they moved around their environment.
- Physics
Low-energy laser makes leap toward practicality
Researchers have created a polariton device that runs on electricity.
- Life
Invasive frogs may spread deadly amphibian fungus
African clawed frogs imported for 20th century pregnancy tests apparently communicate B. dendrobatidis to native species.
- Life
Analog circuits boost power in living computers
New cell-based computers do division and logarithms more like a slide rule than a laptop.
- Life
Foot fungi a thriving, diverse community
A skin census finds that toes and heels have the most fungal types.
- Psychology
Less is more for smart perception
Neural efficiency reigns in brains of high-IQ individuals as they view their surroundings, a new study indicates.
- Animals
How roaches developed disgust at first bite
A change in taste cells makes glucose-baited traps repellent.
- Life
Response to bacterial infection depends on time of day
Mice that got Salmonella in the evening fared better than those given the microbe in the morning.
- Paleontology
Fossil muddies the origin of birds
New specimen may be a feathered dinosaur — or the earliest avian yet discovered
- Health & Medicine
Underactive thyroid ups pregnancy risks
Several complications are more common in women with the condition, including gestational diabetes and cesarean births.
- Health & Medicine
Mars trip would deliver big radiation dose
Curiosity instrument confirms expectation of major exposures.
- Health & Medicine
Easy steps limit antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals
Intensive care units that bathe patients and take other precautions have fewer cases of staph, a study finds.
- Life
Genes weakly linked to education level
A search of more than 2 million DNA locations in more than 125,000 people finds a weak, and perhaps dubious, association with schooling.
- Humans
Couples who meet online have fine marriages
Relationship satisfaction for Internet daters is similar to that of people who find potential partners in more traditional ways.
- Archaeology
Italians taught French wine-making
Archaeology suggests Etruscans brought the grape to Gaul.
- Humans
Dietary changes accompanied human evolution
Hominids moved toward eating grasses and away from tree leaves, according to chemical analyses of fossil tooth enamel.
- Health & Medicine
Flu spreads via airborne droplets
Hand washing goes only so far in retarding flu transmission.
- Animals
Frog long thought extinct rediscovered in Israel
Hula painted frog turns out to be the only surviving member of an extinct genus.
- Paleontology
Fossil sheds light on early primates
Partial skeleton near root of monkey, ape and human line.
- Quantum Physics
Light breaks up to cloak gaps in time
Method could hide messages without sender’s knowledge.
- Neuroscience
Research prods brain wiring underlying compulsive behavior
Complementary studies, focusing on repetitive grooming in mice, offer potential for new treatment strategies in humans.
- Health & Medicine
DSM-5 enters the diagnostic fray
Fifth edition of the widely used psychiatric manual focuses attention on how mental disorders should be defined.
- Science & Society
Tim Samaras, 1957–2013
Tim Samaras spent the past twenty years chasing tornados. He was killed in a storm in May.
- Chemistry
A Tale of Seven Elements
Eric Scerri's book tells the story of filling in the periodic table of the elements.
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- Physics
Hard times for theorists in a post-Higgs world
The Large Hadron Collider’s big success leaves no clear avenue for new physics.
- Animals
In the Eye of the Tiger
Global spread of Asian tiger mosquito could fuel outbreaks of tropical disease in temperate regions.
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Letters to the editor
Invertebrate enigmas I found the recent article “Evolutionary enigmas” (SN: 5/18/13, p. 20) fascinating because I know of another example of an invertebrate animal possessing a “strictly vertebrate” quality. As a high school human anatomy and physiology teacher, I sometimes have my students test the effects of the constituents in cigarette smoke on live Daphnia […]
- Health & Medicine
Balloon Clears Arteries
Excerpt from the June 29, 1963, issue of Science News Letter.
- Math
Math on Trial
How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom by Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez.
