Uncategorized
- Animals
Foodfree growth
Rattlesnakes undergo a hibernation-like state to survive long periods of famine, while continuing to grow longer.
- Health & Medicine
Alcohol spurs cancer growth
Downing the human equivalent of two to four alcoholic drinks per day dramatically spurs the growth of cancers implanted in lab mice.
- Humans
Letters from the April 15, 2006, issue of Science News
Light shift Regarding “Blasts from the Past: Astronomers begin to go the distance with gamma-ray bursts” (SN: 2/11/06, p. 88), why is it that visible light is shifted to lower frequencies but gamma rays aren’t? Shouldn’t they have become X rays after all that distance? Stephen WoodOrlando, Fla. All wavelengths are redshifted. That means that […]
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Do flame retardants make people fat?
Fat cells exposed to brominated flame retardants undergo changes that would appear to foster obesity and type 2 diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Breakfast trends
Although breakfasts tend to pack a lot of nutrition per typical calorie consumed, one in five U.S. residents skips this meal.
- Planetary Science
Another visitor to Mars
The newest spacecraft from Earth arrived at the Red Planet on March 10.
- Planetary Science
Making Mercury
New computer simulations of Mercury's violent formation account for the planet's abundance of heavy elements and also reveal that some of the debris generated by the collision could have found its way to Earth and Venus.
- Animals
Hummingbirds can clock flower refills
Hummingbirds can keep track of when a particular flower has replenished its nectar and is worth visiting again.
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Although I love finding out about how traits supposedly unique to humans are shared by animals, I don’t see how the experiment in this article demonstrates episodic memory in hummingbirds. How is this not the simple sensing (smelling) of the sugar drink in the syringes? Yvonne LyerlaSonoma, Calif. Researcher T. Andrew Hurly says that his […]
- Archaeology
Early farmers took time to tame wheat
Domesticated varieties of wheat emerged gradually in the prehistoric Near East over a roughly 3,000-year span.
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19665
A great earthquake occurs on average every 130 years in the southern part of the San Andreas fault, so Los Angeles is long overdue. Make no mistake, loss of life, injuries, and damage will be on an apocalyptic scale. The government may take days or weeks to bring in help. You must take responsibility for […]
- Earth
Region at Risk
Scientists are still analyzing the magnitude 7.9 quake that struck San Francisco a century ago and, at the same time, are scrambling to estimate when the next large quake will strike the Bay Area.
