Uncategorized
- Earth
Visiting RadTown
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an interactive Web site that uses an animated town to provide basic information on radiation in the environment—from lasers in a stadium light show to x rays at the dentist’s office. This virtual community shows the wide variety of radiation sources commonly encountered in everyday life. The site […]
- Humans
From the July 4, 1936, issue
Tiny stratosphere probes, neutron rays for medicine, and secrets of ancient bones.
- Tech
Power Play: Shift from loss to gain may boost silicon devices
By tapping solar cell-like behavior in a silicon optical amplifier, engineers have shown that light-manipulating components made from silicon can become power recyclers rather than power wasters, an advance that boosts prospects for silicon optical devices.
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Feminine Side of ADHD: Attention disorder has lasting impact on girls
Many girls diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as grade-schoolers struggle with a variety of problems related to that condition as teenagers, even though their hyperactive symptoms often ease.
- Animals
Dawn Sneaks: Old birds sing early, cuckold sleepyheads
Among European birds called blue tits, older males join the springtime dawn chorus extra early—which may signal their charms to philandering females.
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Smoke Screen: Light cigarettes reduce odds of quitting
People who smoke light cigarettes are much less likely to quit smoking than people who smoke regulars.
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Young and Deadly: Cancer shares gene activity with developing lungs
Genes that are switched on or off in developing mouse lungs have similar activities in human-lung cancers.
- Astronomy
Repaired Vision: Hubble’s camera sees again
The main camera on the Hubble Space Telescope is operating normally again after being blinded for 2 weeks by an electrical failure.
- Earth
The Long Burn: Warming drove recent upswing in wildfires
Major forest fires in the western United States have become more frequent and destructive over the past two decades, in step with rising average temperatures in the region.
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19706
It seems more likely that a decline of total precipitation and humidity would be the direct cause of both temperature and fire incidence. It is fashionable to blame every weather problem on greenhouse gases and global warming, but in this case doing so may lead to false conclusions. Paul BadeMankato, Minn. Neither the study nor […]
- Humans
Letters from the July 8, 2006, issue of Science News
The grammar gene? While reading that starlings may be capable of discerning grammatical patterns (“Grammar’s for the Birds: Human-only language rule? Tell starlings,” SN: 4/29/06, p. 261), I recalled the FOXP2 gene. The gene seems to be involved in the development of areas of the brain involved in speech in humans. Variants of FOXP2 were […]
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