Uncategorized
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Book Review: Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History by Ahmad Dallal
Review by Tom Siegfried.
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Bulletproof Feathers by Robert Allen, ed.
Photos and illustrations highlight how nature inspires technology, from airplane wings that change shape to stainproof fabrics. BULLETPROOF FEATHERS BY ROBERT ALLEN, ED. University of Chicago Press, 2010, 192 p., $35.
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What’s Eating You? People and Parasites by Eugene H. Kaplan
An ecologist takes readers on an engaging, if sometimes squirm-worthy, tour of the world’s hangers-on. WHAT’S EATING YOU? BY EUGENE H. KAPLAN Princeton University Press, 2010, 302 p., $26.95.
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Off the Grid by Nick Rosen
A journalist travels the country to visit Americans who, for a variety of reasons, have opted out of the electrical grid and into alternative lifestyles. OFF THE GRID BY NICK ROSEN Penguin, 2010, 292 p., $15.
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Letters
New views of enzymes “Enzymes exposed” (SN: 7/17/10, p. 22) was an interesting read, but is there more to the story? When biologists consider the lock-and-key model for enzymes, I wonder if they are stuck in the static stick-and-ball mentality of traditional chemistry. Is biochemistry really static or is it dictated by the vibrational mode […]
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Biomedical research needs more consistent funding
This summer William Talman became president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, an organization that advocates the advancement of biological and biomedical research. He is a professor of neurology and neuroscience at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and a practicing physician at the university’s hospital and at the Iowa City […]
- Health & Medicine
Defining normal in the brain
A new growth curve paves way for scans to be used to spot early signs of autism, schizophrenia or other disorders.
- Space
Mars shows signs of recent activity
The surface of Mars had abundant liquid water as well as volcanic activity during the past 100 million years, a new study of the Martian atmosphere suggests.
- Math
Crowdsourcing peer review
MATH TREK: A claimed proof that P≠NP spurs a massive collaborative research effort.
- Health & Medicine
A cellular secret to long life
Longevity may depend in part on histones, proteins that keep DNA neatly spooled in the cell’s nucleus and help regulate gene activity.
- Health & Medicine
Mutated gene cited in some ovarian cancers
The finding may help researchers devise a way to screen women with endometriosis for cancer risk.
- Paleontology
The hunchback of central Spain
An exquisitely preserved dinosaur from central Spain has a hump on its back and suggestions of featherlike appendages on its arms. The primitive carnivore lived about 125 million years ago and may push back the first known instance of feathers on the dinosaur family tree.
