Uncategorized

  1. 19307

    Tyrannosaurus rex ‘s environment may have provided sufficient carrion for the giant to survive as a scavenger, and studies of its ratio of leg-muscle mass to body mass suggest that it wasn’t speedy enough to be an efficient predator. But this may be only how it ended its life. It didn’t hatch from the egg […]

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  2. Paleontology

    Was T. rex just a big freeloader?

    A new study suggests that an ecosystem like today’s African savanna could provide sufficient carrion to nourish a scavenger the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

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  3. Animals

    Ants lurk for bees, but bees see ambush

    A tropical ant has perfected the un-antlike behavior of hunting by ambush, but its prey, a sweat bee, has developed some tricks of its own.

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  4. Physics

    Squirming through space-time

    In the exotic realm of curved space, the topography of space itself might provide a propulsion assist—albeit a tiny one.

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  5. Earth

    More Arctic clouds may lessen warming

    Nearly 2 decades of satellite observations suggest that an increase in Arctic cloudiness at certain times of the year may partially counteract the effects of global warming in the region.

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  6. Math

    Disorder in the Deck

    Card players sometimes get lazy, shuffling a deck fewer times than necessary to randomize the cards. Indeed, persistently sloppy shuffling can have a significant impact on play–an effect that experts (and gamblers) can exploit to their advantage. However, the problem lay not in the computer but with human expectations. Subsequent research showed that hands in […]

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  7. Math

    Disorder in the Deck

    Card players sometimes get lazy, shuffling a deck fewer times than necessary to randomize the cards. Indeed, persistently sloppy shuffling can have a significant impact on play–an effect that experts (and gamblers) can exploit to their advantage. However, the problem lay not in the computer but with human expectations. Subsequent research showed that hands in […]

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Plot thickens for blood pressure drugs

    A new study counters a recent report that diuretics taken for high blood pressure protect against heart problems better than newer, more expensive drugs.

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  9. Math

    Staying in Step

    Late in the winter of 1665, an ailing Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) was confined to his room for a few days. The Dutch physicist whiled away the hours of his confinement by closely observing and pondering the odd behavior of two pendulum clocks he had recently constructed. Huygens had obtained a patent on the first pendulum […]

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  10. Discovery of bitter-taste gene is sweet

    Scientists have found that variations in a gene explain why people differ in their ability to taste bitterness.

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  11. Physics

    In orbit, water makes the stretch

    An astronaut-at-play stumbled upon an unexpected behavior of water in near-zero gravity: The formation of durable films—some as wide as saucers—that would instantly break here on Earth.

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  12. Math

    Planes of Budapest

    Nearly every Sunday during the winter of 1933 in Budapest, a small group of students would meet somewhere in the city at a park or cafe to discuss mathematics. The gathering typically included Paul Erdös (1913–1996), who was attending the University of Budapest, György (George) Szekeres, a recent chemical engineering graduate of the Technical University […]

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