Uncategorized

  1. Humans

    Letters from the April 1, 2006, issue of Science News

    The prion game I must quibble about the headline of the piece about chronic wasting disease in deer (“Hunter Beware: Infectious proteins found in deer muscle,” SN: 1/28/06, p. 52). “Hunter Beware” sounds ominous, but in order to get the mice to exhibit symptoms after getting muscle tissue from infected deer, it was necessary to […]

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  2. Tech

    Corralling Brownian motion

    A new microscope system uses electrically controlled fluid motions to counteract Brownian motion, preventing those random jitters from driving proteins, viruses, and other tiny objects out of the field of view.

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  3. Physics

    Tiny wires trigger electric reversal

    Ultrathin zinc nanowires exhibit a puzzling conductivity reversal that flies in the face of known wire behavior.

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  4. Earth

    Shafts of snow sculpted by sun

    Physicists have created miniature, laboratory versions of towering snow spikes found high in the Andes Mountains.

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  5. 19662

    This article doesn’t say that penitentes appear only in the Andes, nor does it say in what part of the Andes they appear. Does the formation of penitentes require that the sun be nearly directly overhead for part of the day? Can penitentes form only near the equator? Burton LoupeeCedar Rapids, Iowa Penitentes are also […]

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  6. Animals

    Wary male spiders woo lifelessly

    When trying to court a cannibalistic female spider, males of a certain species play dead.

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  7. 19661

    I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]

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  8. 19660

    I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]

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  9. Tech

    Device rids homes of sounds of rap

    Woodpeckers cause millions of dollars of damage to homes and buildings each year, but a battery-operated, sound-activated, spider-shaped device installed beneath a home's eaves can help prevent this avian scourge.

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  10. 19659

    I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]

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  11. Health & Medicine

    On a dare, teen advances medical science

    A 16-year-old daredevil inadvertently demonstrated the incubation period of a common roundworm after she swallowed an earthworm that harbored larvae of the parasite.

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  12. 19658

    I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]

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