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  1. Letters

    Promising new Alzheimer’s model “Memories can’t wait” (SN: 3/12/11, p. 24) was a well-written analysis of the problems facing those of us working in the field of geriatric psychology. The new research model based on inflammation is very promising. From a cost-benefit standpoint, early diagnosis and preventive treatment of potential Alzheimer’s patients will be essential […]

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  2. Book Review: Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch . . . and What It Takes to Win by Judy Dutton

    Review by Erika Engelhaupt.

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  3. Book Review: The New Cool: A Visionary Teacher, His FIRST Robotics Team, and the Ultimate Battle of Smarts by Neal Bascomb

    Review by Devin Powell.

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  4. Success with Science: The Winners’ Guide to High School Research by Shiv Gaglani, ed.

    In this guide to high school research, five Harvard students and past competition winners give tips on project ideas, finding mentors and more. Research Corp. for Science Advancement, 2011, 180 p., $19.95.       

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  5. The Geek Dad’s Guide to Weekend Fun: Cool Hacks, Cutting-Edge Games, and More Awesome Projects for the Whole Family by Ken Denmead

    All the entertainment a geek family could want is packed into this how-to book, from backyard zip lines to homemade robots. Gotham Books, 2011, 227 p., $18.

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  6. Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System by Ray Jayawardhana

    Engaging stories of astronomers and their quest to find Earthlike planets orbiting distant suns, and even signs of life. Princeton Univ. Press, 2011, 255 p., $24.95.           

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  7. Bad Science by Linda Zimmermann

    A brief history of science blunders through the ages, including radium cures and phrenology, the reading of head bumps. Eagle Press, 2011, 224 p., $14.95.

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  8. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku

    A physicist interviews over 300 scientists and lays out a mostly rosy vision of research advances that he predicts will shape the world by 2100. Doubleday, 2011, 389 p., $28.95.

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  9. Mind the gap: Genetic knowledge and medical power

    Since the completion of the Human Genome Project a decade ago, much excitement has swirled around the possibility that determining a person’s genetic makeup could help doctors personalize the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. But James P. Evans, a physician and geneticist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says the promises […]

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  10. Space

    Dry ice, wetter Mars

    A previously unknown reservoir of frozen carbon dioxide could periodically vaporize, thickening the atmosphere and allowing liquid water to flow on the Red Planet’s surface.

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  11. Earth

    Ozone loss made tropics rainier

    Hole over Antarctica changes weather patterns all the way to the equator, simulations suggest.

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  12. Body & Brain

    Hockey concussions take progressively longer to heal, plus rotavirus vaccines and declining stillbirths in this week’s news.

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