Uncategorized
- Math
Solving an Ancient African Game
The game of awari has entranced players for thousands of years. Originating in Africa, it remains a popular pastime in many parts of the world. Awari and its numerous variants are instances of “count-and-capture” strategy games, and they are known generically as mancala games. In its traditional form, the awari game “board” consists of two […]
-
19113
Why not explore the connection to much greater use of antibiotics, particularly in recent years, including by expectant mothers and very young children? Could not this factor negatively affect immature immune systems, leading to increases in allergic disorders in otherwise healthy people? Robert C. WaggonerMountain Lakes, N.J.
- Health & Medicine
Arctic Sneeze: Greenlanders’ allergies are increasing
Allergies in Greenland nearly doubled from 1987 to 1998.
- Chemistry
Wine Tasting: Instrument can sniff out vinegar in sealed wine
A new system could determine whether a sealed bottle of wine has turned to vinegar.
-
Chimp Change: Did an HIV-like virus ravage early chimps?
Modern chimpanzees may be the offspring of survivors of an HIV-like pandemic that took place 2 million years ago.
- Physics
Bitty Beacon: Wee disks probe materials at microscales
Illuminated by lasers, disks no larger than red blood cells can project rotating beams bright enough to create a light show in a darkened room.
- Anthropology
Lost-and-Found Fossil Tot: Neandertal baby rises from French archive
The approximately 40,000-year-old skeleton of a Neandertal baby, filed and forgotten in a French museum for nearly 90 years, has been recovered by an anthropologist.
- Humans
From the September 3, 1932, issue
INSECT LARVAE MAKE MOSAIC JEWELRY Manufacturers of modern jewelry might well turn to the larvae of the caddis fly for effective models for small containers–tiny perfume bottles, say, or lipstick cases. These water-dwelling “worms” build mosaic coverings for the little cylindrical houses they spin for themselves, taking bits of sand and gravel from the streambed […]
-
Art of the Gene
Artworks and essays inspired by current genetics research are featured at the Web site accompanying the traveling art exhibition known as “Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics.” Curated by Robin Held of the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, the exhibition offers a wide variety of artistic speculations–from the whimsical to the starkly dramatic–on the implications […]
- Planetary Science
Pluto and the Occult: Rare events illuminate Pluto’s atmosphere
Twice in the past month, astronomers were given a rare opportunity to peer through the tenuous atmosphere of Pluto.
- Animals
Ant Enforcers: To call in punishment, top ant smears rival
In Brazilian ant colonies where a female has to fight her way to the top, she stays in power through some judicious gang violence.
- Health & Medicine
Stroke Stopper: New vaccine curbs blood vessel damage in lab animals
A vaccine that desensitizes the immune system to a protein inside blood vessels prevents some strokes in laboratory rats.
