Uncategorized
- Tech
On the Rebound
When electronically reversed in time, acoustic echoes can zero in on a spot in space, focusing sound energy so that it may zap tumors, detect submarines, or transmit private and secure information.
- Humans
From the March 11, 1933, issue
GREAT LION OF LA BREA Bigger by a fourth than the proudest lion that walks the veldt today were the tallest of the great lions of California a hundred thousand years ago. Rivaled in size only by the short-faced bears whose bones have been found with theirs in the La Brea tar-pits, they could confidently […]
- Earth
Autosub Under Ice
Follow the Southampton (UK) Oceanography Centre’s “Autosub Under Ice” expedition to Antarctica’s Pine Island Bay. The centre’s Web site features daily news reports, images, and interviews with expedition members aboard the unmanned sub’s parent ship. The expedition runs until April 2. Go to: http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/SOES/MSC/OC/CEO/aui/live.html
- Math
Art of the Grid
The practice of laying a grid on top of a drawing, then painstakingly copying each line of the drawing to the corresponding cell of a blank grid seems old-fashioned in these days of pervasive photocopying and electronic image manipulation. Nonetheless, the underlying idea of transferring information from one grid to another has a long history […]
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19306
Your article ends with the claim that “a color-blind person and a noncarrier have no chance of having a color-blind child.” Yet as I recall from basic biology class, color blindness is considered a prime example of a sex-linked trait, which makes the above statement untrue. Carried on the X chromosome, the trait would manifest […]
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19305
This article is somewhat misleading. We physicians long ago learned that blocking the enzymatic process (with Antibuse) helps alcoholics. The news is that increases in acetaldehyde in saliva have “possible local carcinogenic action.” Malcolm A. Sowers Castro Valley, Calif
- Math
Contra Dances, Matrices, and Groups
Though unknown to many people, contra dancing is practiced with great devotion and abandon throughout the United States by fans of this lively dance form. What’s striking is that a remarkably high percentage of contra dancing’s practitioners are highly educated, often involved in mathematics, computers, or engineering. Matrix representing initial configuration of two couples in […]
- Tech
Watching the Big Wheelers: In sea of cars, trucks reveal traffic flow
A new way to sense traffic jams more quickly tracks the motion of trucks within the overall traffic flow.
- Materials Science
Making Polymers That Self-Destruct: Layers break apart in controlled way
A new polymer film chews itself apart under certain conditions, making it a potential candidate for the controlled delivery of therapeutic drugs.
- Health & Medicine
Blood sugar processing tied to brain problems
Elderly people with slightly elevated blood sugar are more likely to have short-term memory problems than those with normal blood sugar.
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19304
I was dismayed to see you publish an unsubstantiated and highly misleading claim that welfare “reform” is not harming children. The study dealt with the atypical welfare mothers able to find sustainable employment. For them, I don’t doubt that having enough money rather than too little would be an improvement. Unmentioned are the many unskilled […]
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Working Out: Welfare reform hasn’t changed kids so far
A study conducted among low-income families in three states suggests that the emotional health and academic skills of preschoolers and young adolescents don't suffer when their mothers move off welfare and into the workforce.
