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Health & MedicineProstate Health
Many men over age 50 rarely sleep through the night. Instead, they find themselves awake and needing to urinate when, as younger men, this rarely happened. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases offers an excellent resource on the most common cause of frequent and urgent urination in men–benign prostatic hyperplasia, or […]
By Science News -
MathTheorems in Wheat Fields
It’s no wonder that farmers with fields in the plains surrounding Stonehenge, in southern England, face late-summer mornings with dread. On any given day at the height of the growing season, as many as a dozen farmers are likely to find a field marred by a circle of flattened grain. This close-up of a crop […]
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19257
After reading your article, I am sure others must have also wondered if the “Tunguska meteor” that struck in Siberia in June 1908 might have been a mirror meteor. The mirror-asteroid strike described in the article sounds very much like descriptions of the event: tremendous energy and no impact crater. If a mirror object were […]
By Science News -
19329
I was surprised to read about the extensive research in Puerto Rico that has found a link between phthalates in plastics and premature breast development in young girls. I was under the impression that a completely different culprit, growth hormones in chickens, was established many years ago. The article indicates that the San Juan researchers […]
By Science News -
19328
Picture this: The year is 2700. A report is made of an “excavation of an 850-year-old site where butchered human skeletons have yielded evidence of cannibalism.” Corprolite discovered at the site contained “the chemical residue of human flesh.” A group of nomadic cannibals had briefly occupied an area known as Donner Pass. Perhaps prehistoric Anasazi […]
By Science News -
19256
In your article, Lawrence Sirovich assumes that the degree of unpredictability shown in Supreme Court decisions results from judicial independence, with the implication that this is a good thing. That unpredictability could easily result instead from confusion caused by absent or conflicting principles in the justices’ political and juridical doctrines, a not-so-good thing. Alan EsworthyApex, […]
By Science News -
HumansIdeal Justice: Mathematicians judge the Supreme Court
The current U.S. Supreme Court of nine judges behaves as if it were made up of 4.68 "ideal" justices who make their decisions completely independently, a mathematical analysis suggests.
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Materials ScienceEasy Repair: Novel structural model heals with heat
The vertebrate spine has provided inspiration for making new structures that heal when heated.
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EarthSlow Turnover: Warming trend affects African ecosystem
Over the past 90 years, rising water temperatures in Lake Tanganyika have led to dramatic losses of productivity among the microorganisms that form the base of the lake's food chain.
By Sid Perkins -
AstronomySolar Terrain: Revealing the sun’s complex topography
The sharpest images of the sun ever taken, released last week, show our stellar neighbor’s rugged surface in new and surprising detail.
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Health & MedicinePrevention in a Pill? Baldness drug might avert prostate cancer
The drug finasteride, given to alleviate baldness and prostate problems, might prevent some cases of prostate cancer.
By Nathan Seppa -
EarthGerms Begone: New technology cleans dangerous water
For a penny per liter, people in the developing world should be able to remove most pathogens and toxic pollutants from their home drinking water.
By Janet Raloff