Uncategorized
- Planetary Science
Moonopolies
Recently discovered tiny satellites, all orbiting the outer planets in strange paths, may shed new light on a critical last phase in the formation of the planets.
-
19285
The irregular satellites of the outer planets are interesting, as reported in this article, but my heart paused when I read “the medium-size Hale Telescope.” That historic 200-inch telescope was the largest in the world for almost 50 years. Incidentally, it’s on Palomar Mountain, not Mount Palomar. Jay M. PasachoffWilliams CollegeWilliamstown, Mass.
- Math
Cool Rationals
It’s curious how some classroom words, activities, or incidents can stick in your mind for years. I can still recall certain grammar rules from lessons long past, for example. When one of these rules comes into play as I write, I can remember not only the teacher’s words but also the tone and manner in […]
- Humans
From the November 11, 1933, issue
RARE BIRD COURTSHIP SHOWN BY NEW MUSEUM GROUP Romantic squires and young knights of the sunset days of feudalism paid court to the lovely ladies of their fancy in elaborately built bowers set in corners of the castle grounds. Even in these livelier days, when troubadours carry saxophones and steel guitars instead of plaintive lutes […]
- Ecosystems
Will Climate Change Depose Monarchs? Model predicts too-wet winter refuges
A computer analysis suggests that eastern monarch butterflies may not be able to tolerate the increasingly moist climate in Mexico, their current wintering site.
-
19284
This article, implying the demise of the unique Mexico-Canada migration, seems too pessimistic. Monarchs have shown a great degree of adaptability. There are monarchs of the western United States, resident populations in Hawaii and on Caribbean islands, and a migrating population in Australia. I am betting that even if the weather forecast for 2050 is […]
- Earth
Not Just Neurotoxic: Pesticide chlorpyrifos affects heart and liver cells
A pesticide known to be toxic to the brain may also have subtle effects on heart and liver tissues of animals exposed to this substance during early development.
- Tech
Plastic Memories: Polymer materials store data permanently
Researchers have fabricated a memory device that stores data permanently in electrically-conducting polymers.
-
Whiffs of Perception: Sniffing activates the mind’s nose
People spontaneously sniff while imagining various smells, an act that intensifies odor perception.
- Physics
Humpty-Dumpty Effect: Acoustically, people resemble large eggs
The first measurements of how people intrinsically scatter sound waves indicate that, acoustically, a human body resembles a hard ellipsoid of the same height and girth as the person.
- Paleontology
Northern Extinction: Alaskan horses shrank, then disappeared
Horses that lived in Alaska shrank dramatically in body size before they went extinct at the end of the last ice age.
- Astronomy
Sound of the fury
On Oct. 28, the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft recorded the radio wave "sound" of a powerful solar flare as it raced toward Earth.
