Uncategorized
- Materials Science
Savvy Skins
Researchers are developing new coatings that incorporate multiple functions, offer chemical reactivity, or act in response to stimuli in the environment.
- Earth
Sudden Chill
Today's combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability, and urban demographics increases the likelihood that humankind could suffer a devastating nuclear winter.
-
19787
The theory of “nuclear winter” was originally put forward by an Eastern European mathematician in the 1980s. Some months later, it was shown that an error in his original calculations so vastly exaggerated “nuclear winter” as to make it meaningless. Still, the dramatic concept of a “nuclear winter” obviously lives on in the public’s mind […]
- Humans
Letters from the February 3, 2007, issue of Science News
All together now It is not only the scientific literature that documents the unexpected “doughnut” pattern in swarms (“The Mind of the Swarm,” SN: 11/25/06, p. 347). Italo Calvino’s fictional Mr. Palomar observed (rather more lyrically) about the flocking of Roman starlings, “Finally a form emerges from the confused flutter of wings, advances, condenses: it […]
- Math
Knitting Network
A skein of intriguing mathematical objects comes out of an evening devoted to knitting, crocheting, and other crafts.
- Humans
From the January 23, 1937, issue
Ancient slum dwellers, expanding universe questioned, and a math puzzle solved.
- Humans
Math and Science Education Repository
The Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSER) serves up applied math and science resources in an easy-to-use format. Though specifically created for teachers and students in community and technical colleges, AMSER is available to everyone. Users can find links to a wide assortment of materials, from large Web sites focusing on an individual applied […]
- Plants
Secret Agent: Hidden helper lets fungus save plants from heat
A fungus that supposedly lets plants live in overheated soil turns out to work only if it's infected with a certain virus.
- Health & Medicine
Good Poison? Carbon monoxide may stifle multiple sclerosis
A study in mice suggests that small amounts of carbon monoxide might alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
-
19786
I went most of my adult life multiple sclerosis-free, with only an occasional symptom. Then in 1981, I quit cold turkey after 35 years of smoking and never went back to it. Shortly after I quit, my MS started full blown. Is it possible that smoking kept the MS in remission all those years? I […]
- Paleontology
Ancient Glider: Dinosaur took to the air in biplane style
About 125 million years before the Wright Brothers took to the air with their biplane, a 1-meter-long dinosaur may have been swooping from tree to tree using the same arrangement of wings.
- Astronomy
Magnificent McNaught
Flaunting a majestic tail over southern skies, Comet McNaught became in mid-January the brightest comet in more than 40 years.
