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  1. Humans

    Autism care takes biological toll on mothers

    Caring for teens and young adults with autism not only creates intense psychological pressure on mothers but may promote sharply decreased production of a crucial stress hormone, a long-term study suggests.

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  2. Science Future for June 20, 2009

    June 26 Attend or watch the webcast of “Iron Science Teacher” at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Visit www.exploratorium.edu/iron_science July 19–26 Plumb the depths of cave science at the 15th International Congress of Speleology in Kerrville, Texas. Find out more at www.ics2009.us August 10–13 Scientists discuss the largest U.S. waterway at the Visions of a […]

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  3. Science Past from the issue of June 20, 1959

    Mechanical cow eats grass — A mechanical “cow” has just started work at the British Agricultural Research Council’s experimental station at Rothamsted, near London. Its function is to extract protein from leaves or grass or any suitable vegetation…. Grass or other vegetation is fed into the machine from a normal elevator. After being chopped, the […]

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  4. Letters

    Tobacco for adults, cocoa for kids I was interested in the report of cacao-beverage use by people of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico as early as A.D. 1000 (“Hot chocolate, with foam please,” SN: 2/28/09, p. 14). In the late ’50s, I and others at the Philip Morris Research Center looked at pipe samples from […]

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  5. Neuroscience

    Book Review: Deep Brain Stimulation: A New Treatment Shows Promise in the Most Difficult Cases by Jamie Talan

    Review by Nathan Seppa.

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  6. Book Review: The Bomb: A New History by Stephen M. Younger

    Review by Elizabeth Quill.

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  7. A Mathematician’s Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form by Paul Lockhart

    Prevailing math education makes the grade but misses the meaning, a teacher argues. Bellevue Literary Press, 2009, 192 p., $12.95. A MATHEMATICIAN’S LAMENT: HOW SCHOOL CHEATS US OUT OF OUR MOST FASCINATING AND IMAGINATIVE ART FORM BY PAUL LOCKHART

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  8. Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins by Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong

    Lucy’s discoverer and  a science writer detail advances in paleoanthropology. Harmony Books, 2009, 309 p., $25. LUCY’S LEGACY: THE QUEST FOR HUMAN ORIGINS BY DONALD C. JOHANSON AND KATE WONG

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  9. Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West by James Lawrence Powell

    The draining reservoir is a bellwether for water supplies in the American West. Univ. of California Press, 2009, 283 p.,$27.50. DEAD POOL: LAKE POWELL, GLOBAL WARMING, AND THE FUTURE OF WATER IN THE WEST BY JAMES LAWRENCE POWELL

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  10. Aladdin’s Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World by John Freely

    Science survived the Dark Ages in the sanctuary of the Middle East. Knopf, 2009, 303 p., $27.95. ALADDIN’S LAMP: HOW GREEK SCIENCE CAME TO EUROPE THROUGH THE ISLAMIC WORLD BY JOHN FREELY

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  11. Elephant Reflections – Photos by Karl Ammann, Text by Dale Peterson

    A photographer’s lens brings this pachyderm into focus. Univ. of California Press, 2009, 272 p., $39.95 ELEPHANT REFLECTIONS BY PHOTOGRAPHS BY KARL AMMANN, TEXT BY DALE PETERSON

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  12. Ecosystems

    From sea to squid, thanks to slime

    Scientists have revealed new details about the genes — and the goo — that enable luminescent bacteria to colonize their symbiotic marine partner.

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