Uncategorized
- Tech
Hearing implant knows where it goes
A new type of cochlear implant includes sensors whose signals may help surgeons insert the device more deeply into the inner ear and so provide better hearing.
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The picture of the new cochlear implant in this article shows a square piece that is to be implanted deeply into the inner ear. “Square peg in a round hole” was my response. Why doesn’t the probe have a more rounded shape? Yvonne LyerlaSonoma, Calif. Only the slender shaft attached to the square piece goes […]
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Sexual selection: Darwin does Jamaica
A study of young Jamaicans dancing to pop music suggests that some of Darwin's ideas about animal courtship may apply to people.
- Animals
First maternal care filmed in squid
At least one squid species turns out to be a caring mom after all, say researchers who filmed the creatures using remote-control cameras positioned deep in the Pacific Ocean. With Video.
- Astronomy
Outer Limits
A slew of recently discovered objects at the far reaches of the solar system, including a possible tenth planet, are providing scientists with clues about the origin and evolution of this distant region.
- Animals
The Trouble with Chasing a Bee
Radar has long been able to detect high-flying clouds of insects, but it's taken much longer for scientists to figure out how to track your average bee.
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In this article about using harmonic reflected signals to track bees, I thought it was interesting to note that the original technology was created by the Russians as a spy device. The technology is still being used for a form of spying. Dwight ElveySanta Cruz, Calif.
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- Humans
From the January 4, 1936, issue
Experimental rockets, a tuberculosis-fighting bacteriophage, and an antidote for barbiturate poisoning.
- Math
Slide Rule Universe
Nowadays, calculators and computers are essential tools for scientists and engineers. A few decades ago, however, an ingenious calculating device called the slide rule was in every engineer’s toolbox. This Web site provides a glimpse of those long-gone days. It provides references materials on the care, feeding, and use of slide rules, a slide-rule marketplace, […]
- Health & Medicine
Bright Lights, Big Cancer
A woman's blood provides better sustenance for breast cancer just after she's been exposed to bright light than when she's been in steady darkness.
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Epidemiologist Scott Davis warns, “Melatonin supplements are not regulated” the way drugs are. . . . “There may be all kinds of impurities and contaminants.” Are you really going to tell me that you aren’t going to take melatonin—if you’re convinced that it might lower your chance of getting cancer by as much as 50 […]
