Uncategorized
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Animals
Very brown sheep have a dark side
Big, dark sheep on a Scottish island are not breaking the rules of evolution after all.
By Susan Milius -
Health & Medicine
Receptor may be cancer accomplice
Suppressing a receptor protein called neuropilin-2 slows colon cancer growth in mice.
By Nathan Seppa -
Earth
Fabulon: Looking less fabulous
The source of polychlorinated biphenyls found heavily tainting some homes—and their dwellers—appears to be a durable topcoat for hardwood floors that was widely used a half-century ago.
By Janet Raloff -
Math
Getting Old, Faster and Faster
The world population is aging fast, but is still younger than we tend to think.
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Materials Science
Fishy flash
Fish alter the growth of crystals in their skin, making it supershiny.
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Tech
Smells like DNA
By reshuffling the chemical letters of the genetic code, scientists have made short strands of DNA that can distinguish several different smells, such as explosives and food preservatives.
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19921
I was intrigued by this article. It states: “The interaction of gravity, matter, and radiation in the early universe set up acoustic oscillations, cosmic sound waves that left their imprints on the distribution of galaxies across the sky.” Spanish poet Antonio Machado [1875–1939] put a similar mode of thinking into a poem dealing with dreams. […]
By Science News -
Astronomy
Embracing the Dark Side
Ten years after researchers discovered that the expansion of the universe was speeding up rather than slowing down, cosmologists are still struggling to explain the astonishing finding.
By Ron Cowen -
19920
There is already a Web site that also aims to answer “What’s in my backyard?” At ZipcodeZoo.com, David Stang has assembled close to 3 million pages of information (one species per page) based on more than 37 million field observations that include latitude and longitude. Taxonomic information is provided, and there are more than 250,000 […]
By Science News -
Biological Moon Shot
The first entries—with the basics for a mere 30,000 species—in the Web-based Encyclopedia of Life are scheduled for release in a matter of weeks.
By Susan Milius -
Humans
Letters from the February 2, 2008, issue of Science News
Eye for an eagle The photo illustrating “Hatch a Thief” (SN: 12/15/07, p. 372) does not show a golden eagle. The bill of a golden eagle is black on the outer half and pale blue at the base, and the feathers on the back of its head are bright tawny. It could be a white-tailed […]
By Science News -
Humans
From the January 22, 1938, issue
Lightning striking again and again, estimating the age of the oceans, and dangerous, youthful drivers.
By Science News