More Stories from the September 11, 2010 issue
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ChemistrySuperconductors go fractal
Oxygen atoms arrange themselves in a self-similar pattern to help conduct electricity without resistance.
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Archaeology
Lucy’s kind used stone tools to butcher animals
Animal bones found in East Africa show the oldest signs of stone-tool use and meat eating by hominids.
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Tech
The people’s pulsar
Thousands of volunteers help discover a neutron star by donating the processing power in their idle home computers.
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Space
Twinkle, twinkle, little dot
A faint object was once thought to be the first extrasolar planet to be photographed. Then it wasn’t. But now it may go down in the history books after all.
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Astronomy
Celestial wish list
A panel of astronomers ranks proposed astrophysics projects for the coming decade.
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Humans
Depressed teens not shunned
In high school, students with depression seek — rather than settle for — friends with similar moods.
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Humans
Retirement at 62 boosts well-being
People who retire on the early side tend to feel better physically and emotionally than those who quit working earlier or later.
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Life
Muscles remember past glory
Extra nuclei produced by training survive disuse, making it easier to rebuild lost strength.
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Humans
Most prisoners come from few neighborhoods
As overall crime rates declined in the United States, certain poor communities fueled a dramatic rise in incarceration rates.
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Earth
Perforated blobs may be early sponges
Odd shapes in Australian rocks could be the oldest fossil evidence of multicellular animals.
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Health & Medicine
Teen hearing loss rate worsens
The percentage of adolescents with some decline has increased since the 1990s, a study shows.
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Life
Gene profiles may predict TB prognosis
A molecular profile may help doctors predict who will get sick from TB infections.
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Plants
Chlorophyll gets an ‘f’
New variety of photosynthetic pigment is the first to be discovered in 60 years
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Space
Moon shrinks
New pictures expand evidence of the moon’s shrinkage over the past billion years.
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Life
‘Whispering’ gives bats the drop on prey
A stealth approach to echolocation appears to be adaptive for catching eared moths.
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Chemistry
Deep-sea oil plume goes missing
Controversy arises over whether bacteria have completely gobbled oil up.
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Science Future for September 11, 2010
September 16 The North Carolina Museum of Life and Science hosts a Science of Beer event. Go to www.ncmls.org/visit/events/science-beer September 26 An exhibit on archaeology of the Ottoman Empire comes to Philadelphia. See www.penn.museum/upcoming-exhibits.html October 15 Entry deadline for National Engineers Week Future City design competition for middle-schoolers. See www.futurecity.org
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The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
In his first major work in nearly a decade, Hawking ponders the origins of the universe and the pursuit of a unified theory. THE GRAND DESIGN BY STEPHEN HAWKING AND LEONARD MLODINOW Bantam Books, 2010, 208 p., $28.
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Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine’s Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby
A historical account of the sleeping sickness pandemic of the 1920s and the science behind it. ASLEEP BY MOLLY CALDWELL CROSBY Berkley, 2010, 291 p., $24.95.
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Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean by Julia Whitty
Underwater rivers pulse with life in this lyrical exploration of ocean currents. DEEP BLUE HOME: AN INTIMATE ECOLOGY OF OUR WILD OCEAN BY JULIA WHITTY Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, 246 p., $24.
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Physics and Technology for Future Presidents by Richard A. Muller
A Berkeley physics professor puts his popular course for nonscientists into book form. PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR FUTURE PRESIDENTS BY RICHARD A. MULLER Princeton Univ. Press, 2010, 517 p., $49.50.
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Book Review: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
Consider everything you do in 24 hours. Now consider doing it without gravity. Roach’s new book explores just that, unveiling the “man” in “manned space exploration.” She’s not interested in heroes, but in humans — the dirty, hungry, sleep- and stimulus-deprived souls shot into the isolation of space, and the scientists who test every contingency to […]
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Book Review: Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion through the Astonishing World of Math by Alex Bellos
Numberland is a topsy-turvy place. In his new book, Bellos follows math’s counterintuitive twists and turns with the surprise and delight of someone rediscovering a long-lost landscape. HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID BY ALEX BELLOS After receiving a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Oxford University, Bellos left the world of numbers for the world of […]
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Building better can reduce catastrophic quake deaths
Thanks to the planet’s exploding population, more than a billion housing units will be built during the next half century. Many of those will be in urban areas that are vulnerable to catastrophic earthquakes such as the magnitude-7 quake that killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti in January. Roger Bilham, a seismologist at the […]
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DNA on the move
The latest advances from the field of DNA nanotechnology include nanobot ‘spiders’ learning how to walk and even do some work.
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A matter of solidity
Solids are supposed to be the reliable state of matter. In the phenomenon known as supersolidity, solid helium flows through itself. Shane L. Johnson SUPER HELIUM Under normal conditions, helium-4 is a gas, but at temperatures close to absolute zero it can exist in other phases. A superfluid phase has long been studied; scientists are […]
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In field or backyard, frogs face threats
Providence, R.I. — Frogs in the pond have become canaries in the coal mine. As amphibian populations have declined worldwide, concerns have risen about the potential environmental effects of agricultural pesticides and other chemicals. And recent work is challenging existing ideas of what environs and organisms are at risk. From Left: Snehit/Shutterstock images; M. Leach/Animals […]
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Letters
Designing for chance The science in “Life from scratch” (SN: 7/3/10, p. 22) is extremely interesting, and I look forward to hearing further results. However, a few comments in the article play into a common Intelligent Design error. The stated aim is “to show how unguided natural events might have led to life…”; the reference […]
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Science Past from September 10, 1960 issue
PRIMARY CLUE TO MATTER — The shortest lifetime of an elementary particle — only a quarter of a millionth of a billionth of a second — gives a primary clue to the structure of matter…. [S]cientists have known for about ten years of the neutral pi-meson and have been trying to pin down its lifetime. […]
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The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey
The author interweaves tales of scientists and surfers who, whether for study or an adrenaline rush, seek out monster waves. THE WAVE: IN PURSUIT OF THE ROGUES, FREAKS, AND GIANTS OF THE OCEAN BY SUSAN CASEY Doubleday, 2010, 352 p., $27.95.