Notebook

  1. Science Past for September 8, 1962

    NEW METHOD USES CRYSTAL TO DETECT COSMIC RAYS — A new method for detecting the cosmic rays that continuously bombard the earth from outer space has been developed. The technique of using a crystal to catch the tracks of cosmic rays, already showing its worth on earth, will be tried from an earth satellite this […]

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  2. SN Online

    ON THE SCENE BLOG The man at the rover lab’s helm talks to Science News. See “A lifetime of curiosity: An interview with JPL director Charles Elachi.” Courtesy Helmut Tischlinger, Eichstätt Museum of the Jurassic LIFE An unusually well-preserved fossil suggests dino ancestors were fluffy. Read “All dinosaurs may have had feathers.” HUMANS DNA tracks […]

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  3. Science Future for August 25, 2012

    September 13 Take a swig of beer science at the Museum of Life + Science in Durham, N.C. Event will include samples of 10 local beers plus a chance to learn about beer chemistry and physics. See bit.ly/SFncbeer September 15 Visit the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago for an inside look at the lab’s energy […]

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  4. Science Past from the issue of August 25, 1962

    RUBY LASER PIERCES A SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL — A pulsed ruby laser piercing a sapphire crystal is shown on this week’s front cover. The laser at the Radio Corporation of America Laboratories in Princeton, N.J., generates energy so intense that it can bore a sixteenth of an inch hole in the sapphire in a thousandth of […]

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  5. SN Online

    DELETED SCENES BLOG The Higgs boson deserves all the hype it has received — and then some. Read about the particle’s hidden talents in “Higgs hysteria.” Courtesy of Nigel Franks Two new studies support the idea that an odd microbe cannot swap arsenic for phosphorus. Read “Arsenic-based life gets even more toxic.” LIFE Scientists electronically […]

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  6. Science Future for August 11, 2012

    August 23 Christof Koch discusses his book Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist at the Aspen Brain Forum in Colorado. See bit.ly/SFkoch August 31 Nominations due for induction into the Space Technology Hall of Fame. See bit.ly/SFfame September 3 Last day of Summer of Irresponsible Science at the Maryland Science Center. See bit.ly/SFSIS

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  7. Science Past from the issue of August 11, 1962

    ONE-WAY SPACE MISSION TO THE MOON POSSIBLE — The feasibility, from a technical standpoint, of sending a man on a one-way mission to the moon without the propulsion to bring him back to earth was explored by two Bell Aerosystems Company scientists. John M. Cord, project engineer in Aerospace Preliminary Design, and Leonard M. Seale, […]

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  8. Animals

    Tiny creature, giant sperm

    Giant sperm appear in various other species, including some flatworms, beetles and a fruit fly species, Drosophila bifurca, with sperm nearly 6 centimeters long.

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  9. SN Online

    DELETED SCENES BLOG The Higgs boson discovery leaked a day early when SN found a CERN video announcement. See “CMS spokesman: ‘We’ve observed a new particle.’ ” SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC BLOG Huddling together during hibernation puts bats at risk for disease. See “Warning to bats: Cuddle not.” HUMANS The earliest signs of people drinking […]

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  10. Science Future for July 28, 2012

    August 5/6 NASA’s new Mars rover Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars late night August 5 Pacific Daylight Time (in the early hours of August 6 in the Eastern time zone). NASA TV will cover the landing live. Find updates on Curiosity at bit.ly/SFMarsland August 16 The 21-and-up crowd can learn about the Big […]

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  11. Science Past from the issue of July 28, 1962

    BATTLE AGAINST EXHAUST POLLUTION — The automobile exhaust problem is being attacked from many directions in an effort to preserve man’s most necessary commodity, air…. In response to regulations by local and state governments and prodding from the Federal Government, several exhaust-trapping devices for cars have come on the market, none of which controls all […]

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  12. SN Online

    ENVIRONMENT Snow layers warm northern soils, reducing how much climate-warming carbon the ground can hold. See “Arctic’s wintry blanket can be warming.” Jeff Kanipe ON THE SCENE BLOG A Science News editor visits Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull in “Icelandic volcanoes slumber today, but not forever.” GENES & CELLS Sirtuin proteins, associated with longer life spans, also help […]

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