Uncategorized
- Earth
Flame retardants take a vacation
The lifetime in blood of flame- retarding diphenyl ethers, now-ubiquitous pollutants, ranges from 2 weeks to 2 years, Swedish researchers find.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Cocoa puffs up insulin in blood
Eating foods flavored with cocoa powder as opposed to other flavorings stimulates surplus production of the sugar-processing hormone insulin, but the metabolic implications of the finding aren’t yet known.
By Ben Harder - Earth
New PCBs?
New studies have begun linking toxic risks with a ubiquitous family of flame retardants.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
The Nature of Things
An earth scientist's proposed alternative periodic table of elements is emblematic of the growing desire among scientists to recast this 130-year-old chart.
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From the October 21, 1933, issue
COULD YOU DO THIS AT 18 MONTHS? Could you climb a smooth slide as the baby on the front cover does when you were a year and a half old? Of course not. But perhaps you could have, had you been given the training that 18-month-old Johnny, pictured in one of his favorite exercises, has […]
By Science News -
Loss of Smell
To many people, the ability to sense all sorts of odors is a normal occurrence and something that they take for granted. Some people, however, do suffer from a loss or disturbance of a sense of smell–a condition known as anosmia. Created by Helen Gatcum and Tim Jacob of Cambridge University, these Web pages provide […]
By Science News -
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- Humans
Einstein’s Notes
Caltech and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have made available in an online archive thousands of handwritten notes scrawled by Albert Einstein. The digitized documents, some accompanied by translations, include a wide variety of items, such as a diary Einstein kept during a year-long stay in the United States in 1930 and 1931 and a […]
By Science News - Humans
From the October 14, 1933, issue
SOVIET ASCENSION BREAKS WORLD ALTITUDE RECORD Enclosed within the metal shell pictured on the front cover of Science News Letter, three Soviet scientists rose higher above the surface of the earth than man has ever been before, in an ascension from Moscow on September 30. It is the gondola of the Soviet free balloon USSR. […]
By Science News - Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Opens Channels: Research reveals vital function of tiny pores in cell membranes
The 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors two researchers for their pioneering work on the structure and mechanisms of cell membrane channels, tiny pores that regulate the flow of ions and water molecules across cells.
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A Shot at Pain Prevention: Nerve-healing protein relieves rats’ misery
A chemical that spurs growth of nerve cells during fetal development may provide a new way to treat severe chronic pain that results from nerve damage.
By John Travis