Uncategorized
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Earth
Product Health and Safety
What’s under your kitchen sink, in your garage, in your bathroom, and on the shelves in your laundry room? Do these household products pose a potential health risk to you and your family? The National Library of Medicine’s new Household Products Database offers users information on the potential health effects of about 2,000 ingredients contained […]
By Science News -
Humans
From the September 9, 1933, issue
FLEET AS MERCURY The laboratory has yielded a photograph of striking beauty showing Dr. Joseph Slepian and Leon R. Ludwig, Westinghouse engineers, examining a product of their research. They have developed a new method of controlling mercury arc devices which is said to be more positive and many times faster in action than methods now […]
By Science News -
Math
Pennant Races and Magic Numbers
It’s getting close to the end of the regular baseball season. Fanatic fans track not only which team is in first place or in position for a wild-card berth in the playoffs but also the number of games a team must win to avoid elimination. The elimination, or “magic,” number is usually defined to be […]
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Chemistry
Catalyzing green chemistry
A recyclable catalyst promises to eliminate the waste generated during the manufacture of a wide range of chemicals, including drugs and ceramics.
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Earth
Indonesian reefs fell prey to fires
The fires that swept through Indonesian rain forests late in 1997 apparently laid waste to some marine ecosystems, as well.
By Sid Perkins -
Babies show eye for object lessons
Between 4 months and 6 months of age, babies learn that objects continue to exist even when they disappear behind barriers.
By Bruce Bower -
Astronomy
Lights out
Astronomers who have conducted a detailed analysis of the colors of some 37,000 nearby galaxies conclude that the universe is gradually growing darker.
By Ron Cowen -
Chemistry
Amino acid lends a heavy hand
Scientists have identified a mechanism to explain how amino acids evolved to become exclusively left-handed in all living organisms.
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Tech
Smart dust can swarm target
Microscopic mirrors can swarm a target and produce an optical signal that identifies the target to the observer.
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Flag raised for kids’ mental health
A study of North Carolina children and teenagers finds that at least 1 in 3 developed one or more psychiatric disorders by age 16.
By Bruce Bower -
Planetary Science
A phoenix on Mars
If all goes according to plan, a spacecraft will land on the north polar region of Mars in 2008 and scoop up samples of the icy terrain.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Getting the GOODS on Galaxies
A coordinated effort among the most powerful space and ground-based observatories to stare in detail at the same two patches of sky is revealing how galaxies assembled, how rapidly star formation proceeded in the early universe, and whether dark energy has recently revved up the expansion of the universe.
By Ron Cowen