More Stories from the March 12, 2011 issue
- Humans
Running past Neandertals
Stone Age humans’ heel bones, more so than those of Neandertals, aided long-distance running.
- Health & Medicine
Allergic to cancer
Having an overactive immune system may protect against certain types of brain tumor, a study suggests.
- Humans
Adaptive no more
A potential benefit in prehistoric lean times, genetic variant may increase risk of gestational diabetes today.
- Health & Medicine
Prenatal surgery may be preferable for spina bifida
Performing an operation preterm shows better results against the neural tube defect than waiting until the baby is born, but there are trade-offs, a new study shows.
- Life
Fleas leap from feet, not knees
After years of scratching their heads over the question of exactly how the impressive jumpers launch themselves, scientists find an answer.
- Life
Moonless twilight may cue mass spawning
Subtle color shifts on the nights just after the full moon might synchronize the release of gametes by corals and other marine creatures.
- Humans
Lucy’s feet were made for walking
A 3.2-million-year-old toe fossil suggests a humanlike gait for an ancient hominid.
- Physics
‘Atomtronics’ may be the new ‘electronics’
A research team has created a quantum circuit that may help lead to the development of a new class of devices.
- Space
Black holes take light for a spin
Reseearchers say they have found a way to directly observe the existence of spinning black holes.
- Chemistry
Molecules/Matter & Energy
Computer processors get even tinier, plus more in this week’s news.
- Physics
‘Magnetricity’ behaves like electricity
Currents of monopole-like magnetic charges created in an exotic material called spin ice act much like electricity.
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- Humans
2012 budget offers pain and gain for R&D
In a year of federal belt-tightening, the administration prioritizes basic research, education, clean energy and environmental science.
- Life
Carnivorous bladderworts suck up prey
High-speed movies confirm that bug-eating plants are vacuum feeders.
- Space
‘Deep Impact’ comet revisited
NASA takes pictures of Tempel 1 five years after shooting it with a probe.
- Chemistry
Molecules/Matter & Energy
A new class of materials could boost wireless power transmission, plus more in this week’s news
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2011 AAAS meeting: Science without borders
A round-up of Science News coverage of the the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held February 17–21, 2011 in Washington, D.C.
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Science Past from the issue of March 11, 1961
CHICKS LIKE BRIGHT COLORS —Chickens tend to like bright colors and dislike dull or drab colors and black, a poultry scientist said. However, chickens, like people, are individuals and also show individual preferences for different colors, Dr. George D. Quigley of the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., told Science Service . For in-stance, yellow […]
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The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss
A medical historian examines how society came to put faith in science to cure disease. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011, 104 p., $18.
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A new era of physics at the Large Hadron Collider
Last month in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, theoretical physicist Lisa Randall of Harvard University spoke about her hopes for the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. She sat down with Science News physical sciences writer Devin Powell after her February 19 […]
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Quantum Whirls
How turbulence plays out in exotic materials.
- Health & Medicine
Memories Can’t Wait
Researchers rethink the role of amyloid in causing Alzheimer’s
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Letters
Lofty argument I have been a fan of Science Service (now Society for Science & the Public) since I won a subscription to Things of Science [science kit] as a boy in the 1950s, so I feel I must correct a common misunderstanding on how an airplane wing develops lift as stated in your fine […]
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Science Future for March 12, 2011
March 15 Learn how brain-immune battles may lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s. In Portland, Ore. Go to www.omsi.edu/events March 15–27The 19th annual Environmental Film Festival screens at venues across Washington, D.C. See www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org March 21Join science-minded chefs in exploring experimental gastronomy in New York City. Go to www.nyas.org/Events March 25–July 6In Los Angeles, view Small […]
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The Evolution of the Human Head by Daniel E. Lieberman
The story of human evolution is encapsulated in the myriad changes to the head’s anatomy, traced here throughout the hominid fossil record. Harvard Univ. Press, 2011, 756 p., $39.95.
