Science & Society
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Mass EKG screening for athletes inadvisable, panel says
Only athletes with warning signs of cardiac problems should be tested with electrocardiograms, according to the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology.
- Paleontology
Lost-and-found dinosaur thrived in water
Fossils pieced together through ridiculous luck reveal Spinosaurus to be the only known dinosaur adapted for regular ventures into water.
- Health & Medicine
Clinical trial reanalyses may alter who should get treated
Reanalyses of clinical trial data sometimes lead to different treatment suggestions.
- Life
North American bird update finds a little good news
Conservation measures have succeeded in improving the plight of certain North American bird species, but overall the national report card says “needs improvement.”
- Tech
‘Virtual Unreality’ chronicles dangers of digital deception
Journalist Charles Seife documents how the lies and misinformation that riddle the Internet are harming the real world.
- Genetics
Molecular biologist honors ancient bones
After deciphering an ancient skeleton’s genetic secrets, molecular biologist Sarah Anzick helped reinter the remains.
- Paleontology
‘Dinosaur 13’ details custody battle for largest T. rex
Documentary details nasty custody battle over the dinosaur nicknamed Sue, the largest T. rex skeleton ever found.
- Psychology
Simple rules can ease complex financial decisions
Straightforward strategies, known as heuristics, can be indispensable tools for keeping credit card debt in check as well as for making complex business decisions.
- Animals
Numbers of California blue whales rebound
Blue whales, the largest animals on Earth, were hunted nearly to extinction. Now the population that feeds off the coast of California appears to have rebounded to close to prewhaling numbers.
- Tech
Space tourism’s price tag rockets upward
The “high price” of space tourism proposed in the 1960s is nowhere close to the astronomical price tag of trips today.
- Science & Society
‘Enlightening Symbols’ shows how math’s language arose
From numerals to infinity, symbols have advanced mathematical thinking.
- Science & Society
Top 10 mathematical innovations
Nine mathematical innovations that rank right up there with logarithms.
