Uncategorized
- Math
Numbers, by Any Other Name
Most Westerners have come to represent numbers with Hindu-Arabic characters. But many cultures don’t—and historically, a whole range of alternatives have been used. View many at this site, which was developed by Archimedes’ Laboratory, a group that specializes in creating puzzles and brain teasers. Go to: http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numeral.html
- Humans
From the October 30, 1937, issue
A photographer captures the coming of winter, motion pictures show how cancer spreads through the blood, and engineers get new oil from old Pennsylvania wells.
- Health & Medicine
Plugging Leaks: Manipulating receptors may impede sepsis
Manipulation of signaling proteins on blood vessels may help combat sepsis, an often fatal condition.
- Physics
Rock, paper, toxins
A computer model simulates a kind of rock-paper-scissors competition among three species of virtual bacteria.
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19897
This article suggests that Ritalin fails to “cure” attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Ritalin for ADHD is like glasses for a vision problem. True, it aids some functions and not others—visual memory, not executive function, for example. But for the right child at the right time, Ritalin can be tremendously helpful, especially combined with other support the […]
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Stimulant Inaction: ADHD drug’s mental lift proves surprisingly weak
A widely used drug often calms children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder but does little to alleviate the condition's underlying mental deficits.
- Planetary Science
Chilled Out? Ice could lurk beneath Martian equator
An immense volume of ice-rich material may underlie a formation that extends about one-quarter of the way around Mars' equator.
- Earth
Clay That Kills: Ground yields antibacterial agents
A special type of French clay smothers a diverse array of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains and a particularly nasty pathogen that causes skin ulcers.
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Extreme Healing: Protein aids limb regrowth in newts
The ability of newts to regenerate severed limbs depends crucially on a protein released by the insulating sheath around nerves.
- Animals
Cousin Who? Gliding mammals may be primates’ nearest kin
Two species of small, little-known rain forest mammals may be primates' closest living relatives.
- Health & Medicine
Early Arrival: HIV came from Haiti to United States
New analysis of 25-year-old blood samples indicates that HIV reached the United States in about 1969, 12 years before AIDS was first formally described.
- Math
Math on Fire
A supercomputer model fed by real-time data is beginning to make sense of the seemingly unpredictable movement of wildfires.
