Uncategorized
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19123
The opening paragraphs of this article make the curious observation that silicon dioxide is “little noticed outside the semiconductor industry.” That is, of course, nonsense. Silicon dioxide, widely known as quartz, is known to far more people than is silicon, the stuff of semiconductors. It has been valued by humans since we first started fashioning […]
- Tech
Looking for Mr. Goodoxide
The impending collapse of a 40-year union between the electronic wonder materials silicon and silicon dioxide threatens the advance of chip technology and propels a high-stakes search for silicon dioxide replacements.
- Earth
Greenhouse Gassed
Scientists are discovering that more carbon dioxide in the air could spell disaster for plants and the animals that love to eat them.
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19122
I found this article interesting and informative. However, the story of life, both plant and animal, is the story of adaptation to changing environments. I am sure that if CO2 levels were to double in 50 or 100 years, most plants and animals would have little problem adapting. Considering that ice-core studies indicate that CO2 […]
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Cloned pigs, down on the corporate farm
A biotech company announced the first cloning of pigs.
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Researchers enjoy bitter taste of success
Scientists have identified a large family of proteins that work as taste receptors for bitterness.
- Chemistry
Buckyballs Can Come from Outer Space
A new analysis settles the question of whether carbon molecules found in meteorites have an extraterrestrial origin.
- Math
DNA’s Error-Detecting Code
Computers employ a variety of schemes to check whether a chunk of digital information–transmitted as a message, stored in a database, or functioning as a set of instructions–remains error-free. Such error-detection codes would detect, for example, the change of one bit from 0 to 1 or 1 to 0 in corrupted data. Nucleotides may be […]
- Math
Abbott and Costello’s Wacky Math
The Math in the Movies Web page (http://world.std.com/~reinhold/mathmovies.html) provides an annotated list of films in which mathematics plays some sort of role. The choices range from the calculus lessons of Stand and Deliver to the mystifying numerology of the 1998 thriller Pi. Among the notable omissions are several movies featuring the comedy team of Bud […]
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Gender Gap: Parasites’ bias for big animals gives female mammals longevity
Parasites infect male mammals more often than females, possibly contributing to the tendency among mammals of males to die earlier than females.
- Animals
Eat the Kids: Are cannibal fish just freshening the O2?
In beaugregory damselfish, males that snack on some of the eggs supposedly in their care may end up benefiting the rest of the egg clutch by making more oxygen available.
- Chemistry
The Dirt on Art: Chemists test laser cleanup of paintings
A new experiment shows that lasers can be a safe tool for cleaning paintings.
