Uncategorized
- Humans
Letters from the April 24, 2004, issue of Science News
Extreme makeover The observations in “Wrenching Findings: Homing in on dark energy” (SN: 2/28/04, p. 132: Wrenching Findings: Homing in on dark energy) are of stars and galaxies billions of light-years away and billions of years old. Has anyone ever thought about what the universe out there looks like today? Earl RosenwinkelDuluth, Minn. People have […]
- Astronomy
Puzzle on the Edge: The moon that isn’t there
Contrary to predictions, Sedna, the most distant object known in the solar system, does not appear to have a moon.
- Materials Science
Crafty Carriers: Armoring vesicles for more precise and reliable drug delivery
Materials scientists are designing tough, microscopic drug-delivery vesicles that could reach their targets intact and release their cargoes on cue.
- Health & Medicine
Zapping Wayward Cells: Therapy sheds light on transplant complication
Ultraviolet light can curb graft-versus-host disease, a common complication of bone marrow transplants, a study of mice shows.
- Math
Primal Progress: Pattern hunters spy order among prime numbers
The population of prime numbers includes an infinite collection of arithmetic progressions.
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19408
I described everything in this article almost 50 years ago in The City and the Stars (1956, Harcourt, Brace, and World). See chapter 6: “He set up the matrix of all possible integers, and started his computer stringing the primes across its surface as beads might be arranged at the intersections of a mesh. Jeserac […]
- Earth
Lava Life: Hints of microbes in ancient ocean rocks
Microscopic, carbon-lined tubes in lava that erupted onto the ocean floor about 3.5 billion years ago were etched by microbes, a number of signs suggest.
- Physics
Photon Double Whammy: Careening electrons may rev up solar cells
A newfound cue ball effect in nanometer-scale crystals of a semiconductor compound may lead to highly efficient solar cells made from such nanocrystals.
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19407
This article focused exclusively on the conversion efficiency of the solar cells. To my way of thinking, the important parameter is not output power versus input power but output power per dollar cost. The size of the arrays is generally not the deciding item. If their efficiency were only 10 percent, but they cost 10 […]
- Earth
Sea Change: Ocean report urges new policies
To combat environmental degradation and encourage sustainable use of resources off the nation's shores, the U.S. government needs to double its investment in marine research, integrate management of coastal and inland ecosystems, restructure agencies that influence the oceans' health and productivity, and take other far-reaching steps, according to a commission created by Congress.
- Physics
Signs of new five-quark particle
Physicists at a German particle collider unveiled evidence of a new five-quark particle.
- Tech
Super-repellent surface switches on and off
Nanotechnologists have created a remarkably effective liquid-repelling surface that can also become, at the flick of a switch, liquid-attracting.
