More Stories from the October 9, 2010 issue
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ChemistryLight-harvesting complexes do it themselves
A new technique could yield solar cells with no repair or assembly required.
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Earth
Not in this toad’s backyard
Yellow crazy ants meet a hungry obstacle as they spread into cacao plantations.
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Astronomy
Mars organics get new lease on life
More than three decades after the Viking mission failed to find compounds necessary for carbon-based life, a new analysis suggests they could actually be present at detectable levels in the planet’s soil.
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Paleontology
The hunchback of central Spain
An exquisitely preserved dinosaur from central Spain has a hump on its back and suggestions of featherlike appendages on its arms. The primitive carnivore lived about 125 million years ago and may push back the first known instance of feathers on the dinosaur family tree.
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Health & Medicine
Defining normal in the brain
A new growth curve paves way for scans to be used to spot early signs of autism, schizophrenia or other disorders.
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Chemistry
Cockroach brains, coming to a pharmacy near you
Insect tissue extracts show antibacterial activity in lab experiments.
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Space
Asteroids miss with astronomers
Close brushes with small objects like the ones that swept past Earth on Wednesday are actually fairly common.
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Psychology
Video mayhem enlivens decision making
People who play action-oriented video games show improved ability to make quick decisions based on what they see and hear.
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Life
Doing their part by not doing their part
Freeloaders can be good for a community, yeast experiments suggest.
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Life
Cuckoos thrown off by climate change
With earlier springs, the birds are duping a different mix of adoptive parents into raising their young.
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Life
Environmental DNA modifications tied to obesity
Chemical changes that affect gene activity could underlie many common conditions, a new study suggests.
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Environment
Gases dominate Gulf’s subsea plumes
Shipboard experiments in June show that natural gas dominates the Gulf oil plumes and that its components are the favorite choice of microbes.
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Life
Streetlights turn young duds into studs
Nocturnal illumination starts youthful male blue tits chirping earlier in the morning, tempting the mates of their still-snoozing elders.
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Earth
Back to the moon’s future
New crater and composition measurements from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter are helping scientists understand the moon’s history and scout for future landing sites.
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Psychology
Why cell phone talkers are annoys-makers
Overhearing half of a conversation is so aggravating at least in part because it inordinately distracts a listener from tasks at hand.
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Health & Medicine
Obesity in children linked to common cold virus
Exposure to adenovirus-36 may partly explain why kids are getting heavier, a new study suggests.
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Climate
Annual Arctic ice minimum reached
The verdict is in on this year’s Arctic sea-ice melt: third worst since satellites began keeping track of the northern polar cap in 1979. BIG MELT Sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, seen in a NASA simulation of conditions September 3, has reached its annual minimum extent, the third smallest on record. NASA-Goddard Scientific Visualization […]
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Science Future for October 9, 2010
October 10 – 24 First USA Science & Engineering Festival, held in D.C. Go to www.usasciencefestival.org October 15 – 22 Third annual Imagine Science Film Festival celebrated in New York City theaters. See http://imaginesciencefilms.com October 16 New Smithsonian exhibit opens featuring a coral reef made of yarn crocheted into geometric patterns. Go to www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/hreef
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How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki León
Eighty-eight tales tell of science and superstition in the ancient world (including Alexander the Great’s mellification, or embalming in honey). HOW TO MELLIFY A CORPSE BY VICKI LEóN Walker, 2010, 308 p., $17.
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2030: Technology That Will Change the World by Rutger van Santen, Djan Khoe and Bram Vermeer
A survey of science and engineering breakthroughs that may lead to technological leaps. 2030: TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD BY RUTGER VAN SANTEN, DJAN KHOE AND BRAM VERMEER OxfordUniv. Press, 2010, 295 p., $29.95.
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Spider Silk by Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig
Arachnid evolution is woven into this history of one of the strongest natural materials. SPIDER SILK BY LESLIE BRUNETTA AND CATHERINE L. CRAIG Yale Univ. Press, 2010, 229 p., $30.
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The 50 Most Extreme Places in Our Solar System by David Baker and Todd Ratcliff
Tour Earth’s hottest, coldest, stormiest and stinkiest neighbors, plus the solar system’s weirdest phenomena. THE 50 MOST EXTREME PLACES IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM BY DAVID BAKER AND TODD RATCLIFF Harvard Univ. Press, 2010, 290 p., $27.95.
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Book Review: The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
If aliens ever land on Earth, Kean writes, one of the few things humans could present that might actually be understood by the visitors is the periodic table of the elements. That observation is typical of this quirky, thoughtful and thorough book. THE DISAPPEARING SPOON BY SAM KEAN Remembered by many as a daunting chart […]
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Book Review: Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception by Charles Seife
The 2000 U.S. presidential election should have been decided by a coin flip. PROOFINESS: THE DARK ARTS OF MATHEMATICAL DECEPTION BY CHARLES SEIFE Or so argues Seife, a mathematician-turned-journalist who tackles some of society’s biggest math problems in his new book. The race between George W. Bush and Al Gore was, mathematically speaking, too close […]
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We, robot: What real-life machines can and can’t do
As director of the Maryland Robotics Center, Satyandra Gupta oversees 25 faculty members working on all things robotic: snake-inspired robots, robotic swarms, minirobots for medicine and robots for exploring extreme environments on land, under the sea and in outer space. In September the Center hosted its first Robotics Day; afterward, Gupta talked robots with Science […]
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Unnatural selection
Amino acids are the Legos of life — tiny bricks that snap together, forming the proteins on which every function of life depends. With rare exceptions, cells choose from just 20 kinds of Legos. But this is enough for human cells to assemble the more than 1 million proteins they need to function. Ralph Voltz […]
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Letters
Musical bonding In the article “Birth of the beat” (SN: 8/14/10, p. 18), Sandra Trehub says that music’s evolutionary origins remain unknown. Evolution is the sum of many acts of natural selection, so the question is, what survival advantage did music provide? The mother teaching her infant musical skills wouldn’t be so prevalent if survival […]
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Science Past from October 8, 1960 issue
DO SEA SERPENTS EXIST? — The flurry of interest in sea monsters gained new impetus in September 1959, when Dr. Anton Brunn of Denmark described captured larval eels six feet long.… [T]he unusually large size of the larvae suggested that the parents must be of huge size. The adult eels, perhaps 30 to 50 feet […]
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Much Ado About (Practically) Nothing: A History of the Noble Gases by David E. Fisher
Delve deep into the far right of the periodic table with a chemist who appreciates noble gases’ many uses. MUCH ADO ABOUT (PRACTICALLY) NOTHING: A HISTORY OF THE NOBLE GASES DAVID E. FISHER Oxford Univ. Press, 2010, 264 p., $24.95.