Uncategorized
- Humans
Letters from the February 16, 2008, issue of Science News
Inert placebo? Regarding “Getting the Red Out” (SN: 1/19/08, p. 35): While drug companies wish to market their products, my attention is drawn to the fact that 1 in 8 of the control group of psoriasis patients was cured by placebo effect. Who will investigate the process therein? Is there a market for it? Carson […]
- Humans
From the February 5, 1938, issue
Tiny shells test lenses, the rules of radioactivity, and discovering new lunar terrain.
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Marine Cloudmakers
As bubbles in the ocean burst, they release entrained microorganisms and other marine materials. As they’re spewed into the air, these particles can serve as the basis of cloud particles. Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego explain the phenomenon in this Jan. 8 mini-video and even speculate […]
- Humans
Wish List: FY ’09 budget proposal ups physical sciences
President Bush's proposed 2009 federal budget would boost R&D in the physical sciences while reining in biomedical research.
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19925
No way do I understand where the percent changes come from. A change from $80,192 million to $80,494 million is listed as a 1.6 percent decrease. David AdamsGarnet Valley, Pa. The numbers are adjusted for inflation, which will erode buying power by the time fiscal year 2009 begins. At the time we wrote the story, […]
- Health & Medicine
Pot Downer: Marijuana users risk gum disease
Regular marijuana smoking is linked to gum disease in young adults.
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19924
A familiar side effect of marijuana smoking is increased appetite, often for sweet foods. It is doubtful that the marijuana smokers immediately rush to brush their teeth after eating “munchies.” If they smoke multiple times throughout a day, they may be constantly nibbling on sweets, leaving food lodged between teeth and gums, a fairly direct […]
- Ecosystems
Spread of nonnative fish mirrors human commerce
Invasions of foreign freshwater fish are more common in areas with relatively high economic activity, suggesting that humans are a part of the problem.
- Animals
Whales Drink Sounds: Hearing may use an ancient path
Sounds can travel to a whale's ears through its throat, an acoustic pathway that might be ancient in the whale lineage.
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19923
I have heard that whales evolved millions of years ago into their present form, including their very large brains. We humans must be relatively recent in terms of our brain structures. Are there data concerning evolutionary development in whales? Matthew KabriskyDayton, Ohio “Learning to Listen: How some vertebrates evolved biological sonar” (SN: 5/14/05, p. 314) […]
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Tots Who Tote: Babies show neural signs of budding number sense
By three months of age, infants already display separate brain networks for detecting changes in either the number or the types of objects that they see.
- Earth
Finding Fault: Trace of old subduction zone found in Italy
A thick layer of rocks now lying high in the mountains of Italy is the remains of a quake-generating subduction zone active under the sea millions of years ago, a discovery that provides clues about ancient seismic activity along this interface between tectonic plates and insights into what may be happening along many such subduction zones today.
