Uncategorized
- Paleontology
Ratzilla: Extinct rodent was big, really big
Scientists who've analyzed the fossilized remains of an extinct South American rodent say that the creatures grew to weigh a whopping 700 kilograms.
- Humans
From the September 16, 1933, issue
HERDS OF WILD ASSES STILL ROAM MONGOLIAN PLAINS Wild asses, which still roam the vast plains of Mongolia in great herds, are marvels of speed and endurance, according to Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History, who has hunted and photographed them in the course of his many years of scientific exploration […]
- Planetary Science
More Mars—Better than Ever
On Aug. 27, Mars and Earth were closer to each other than at any other time in the last 50,000 years. Even as Earth and Mars slowly draw apart, the Red Planet remains a dazzling sight in the night sky. There’s still time to take in the view. Go to: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/08sep_goaway.htm?list110076
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19343
What would sessile organisms do with information provided by the light from “their meals?” Just because spicules on a sea sponge transmit photons doesn’t mean that that’s their function. David ConteyBoulder, Colo. Each Euplectella sponge houses a pair of bioluminescent shrimp. The researchers speculate that the spicules transmit the shrimps’ light into the sponge’s surroundings. […]
- Tech
Channeling light in the deep sea
Light-conducting fibers that naturally sprout from certain deep-sea sponges may hold lessons for makers of optical fibers for telecommunications.
- Animals
Risk of egg diseases may rush incubation
Bird eggs can catch infections through their shells, and that risk may be an overlooked factor in the puzzlingly early start of incubation.
- Physics
Particle decays hint at new matter
A surprising disagreement between particle-physics theory and a Japan-based research team's measurement of decay rates of matter and antimatter hints that unknown, heavy subatomic particles may exist.
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19342
In your article on experimental hints of a new subatomic particle, three values are quoted for a particular charge-parity violation, all with error bar. Given the large uncertainties in two of these, the three are undistinguishable. Yet you claim that they “don’t agree.” Does no one look at error bars any more? R.A. WilliamsLos Alamos, […]
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Widows show third-year rebound
Women whose husbands die largely overcome their grief-related problems, including depression and social isolation, by about 3 years after their loss, according to a national study.
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The Body Electric
An electric field inside an embryo may tell it whether to place an internal organ on its left or right side.
- Health & Medicine
To Your Health?
Doctors are divided on whether the value of screening the torso with X-rays to find symptomless disease outweighs the costs.
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18897
It’s very appealing to think that a noninvasive test could pick up the earliest signs of cancers or cardiovascular disease. Despite passionate testimonials of how whole-body CT scanning “saved my life,” we don’t know what the tumors found really would have done. We don’t know that these patients’ lives were improved, much less saved. In […]
