Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Invisible Universe
X-ray astronomy opens a new window on the most energetic cosmic events.
- Materials Science
New work improves stainless steel surface
A novel electrochemical method improves the surface of stainless steel without making the metal brittle or prone to corrosion.
- Animals
Second bird genus shares dart-frog toxins
Researchers have found a second bird genus, also in New Guinea, that carries the same toxins as poison-dart frogs in Central and South America.
- Planetary Science
Radio link may hamper a Titan probe
A recently discovered communications problem could prevent the Huygens probe from relaying all of its precious data when it parachutes through the cloud-bedecked atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in 2004.
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Model explains bubonic plague’s persistence
A computer model of bubonic plague suggests rats can harbor the disease for years before a human epidemic breaks out.
- Physics
Protons may waltz off nuclear dance floor
Detection of proton pairs simultaneously emitted from neon nuclei raises the possibility that a new and long-sought window into the nucleus has been found and unlocked.
- Archaeology
Stone Age statuettes don disputed apparel
A report describing woven caps, skirts, belts, and other apparel on Venus figurines from the Stone Age draws some critical responses.
- Earth
Flaws make it a geologist’s best friend
By analyzing some of a diamond's trapped impurities, researchers were able to measure remnants of the gargantuan pressure that produced the gem.
- Health & Medicine
AIDS Vaccine Tests Well in Monkeys
An experimental AIDS vaccine bolstered with two immune proteins protects rhesus monkeys from the disease even when they are exposed to a combination of simian and human immunodeficiency virus.
- Math
Mapping Scientific Frontiers
Can computer visualization help identify turning points and milestones in scientific discovery?
- Humans
Letters from the March 13, 2004, issue of Science News
Dry hole? “Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 46: Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen) seems to be delivering good news for the environment: “Clean” hydrogen can be produced from water using solar energy. This seems to me, however, to be even more horrifying than the burning of […]
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I believe a reader rushed to judgment regarding the environmental impact of splitting water to produce hydrogen for fuel (“Letters: Dry Hole?” above). The split water isn’t ultimately consumed, only recycled. Burning hydrogen reunites it with oxygen, returning water to the environment. Much more intriguing questions might concern the human-accelerated migration of water from liquid […]
