News

  1. Paleontology

    Role of gastroliths in digestion questioned

    New analyses of the gastroliths in ostriches are casting doubt on the theory that large, plant-eating dinosaurs swallowed stones to grind up tough vegetation and thereby aid their digestion.

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  2. Paleontology

    Tracks suggest chase, capture, and after-meal respite

    A 1.3-meter-long, S-shaped trail of fossil footprints discovered in southwestern Indiana includes one set of disappearing tracks—suggesting an ancient chase—and an impression where the predator rested after its meal.

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  3. Humans

    Letters

    Letters from the Oct. 25, 2003, issue of Science News.

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  4. Physics

    Super Spinner: Seven-atom speck acts like superfluid

    Scientists have for the first time directly observed the onset in liquid helium of superfluidity—a quantum-mechanical state in which liquids flow without friction—as helium atoms accumulated one by one to form a droplet of liquid around a gas molecule.