Uncategorized
- Math
Squaring Circles
Cutting a circle into pieces and reassembling the fragments to form a square is a tricky proposition.
- Materials Science
Anyone want to knit a microscopic sweater?
Microscopic polymer tubes can tangle themselves into a new and possibly useful structure—tiny "yarn balls" that flatten out and partly unravel in an electric field.
- Paleontology
Fossil birds sport a new kind of feather
Two fossil specimens of a primitive, starling-size bird that lived about 125 million years ago have tail feathers that may hold the clues to how feathers originated.
- Earth
Chalk reveals greatest underwater landslide
Seismic waves generated by an extraterrestrial object crashing into Mexico 65 million years ago appear to have sent sediment from shallow waters sliding off the continental shelf.
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Language goes beyond sight, sound in brain
Two brain areas long considered crucial for perceiving and speaking words also spring into action in deaf people who are using sign language or watching others do so.
- Tech
Tiny tubes could ease eavesdropping
A team of researchers is developing highly sensitive acoustic sensors using ordered arrays of carbon nanotubes, which act much like the rodlike stereocilia of the inner ear.
- Planetary Science
Mars Views Hint at Early Land of Lakes
New, high-resolution images unveiled this week not only offer supporting evidence that parts of ancient Mars resembled a land of lakes but also point out prime locations to look for fossils if life ever existed on the Red Planet.
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19473
In this article you wondered, “Should gene enhancement, or doping, be permissible for athletes attempting to improve their performance?” Sure, but in separate competitions. Athletes would register as either “doped” or “clean.” The problem with doping is not the doping, it’s the cheating. Sam CoxLoveland, Colo.
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Gene Doping
Inserting genes for extra strength or speed could give athletes an unbeatable, and perhaps undetectable, advantage in competitive sports.
- Math
Young Gauss
Mathematical anecdotes don't always tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
- Humans
Letters from the October 23, 2004, issue of Science News
Hand to mouth “Skin proves poor portal for arsenic in treated wood” (SN: 7/24/04, p. 62: Skin proves poor portal for arsenic in treated wood) shouldn’t make parents any less wary of allowing their children to come in contact with the chromated-copper arsenate wood structures. What children pick up on their hands from a deck […]
- Computing
Net History
Nethistory.info is a new Web site devoted to the history of the Internet. Its aim is to provide material documenting the applications and platforms that came together to create the early Internet, including protocols, personal computers, e-mail, the World Wide Web, networks, and much more. You can sign up for a free monthly newsletter and […]
