Uncategorized
- Math
Catching Flies
Archerfish and baseball outfielders appear to use different strategies to snag a projectile. Archerfish (Toxotes jaculatrix) are famous for their unusual way of hunting insect prey. Upon spying an insect on a twig or a piece of foliage hanging above the water surface, the fish shoots it down using a strong, accurately aimed jet of […]
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Chicken Rank: Hen social position shifts egg hormones
A study of leghorn chickens has linked hormone concentrations in a hen's eggs to her rank in the pecking order.
- Health & Medicine
Making Bone: Novel form of vitamin D builds up rat skeleton
A newly synthesized form of Vitamin D induces bone-making cells to capture calcium and fortify bone mass in rats, suggesting it might work against osteoporosis in people.
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19182
I’ve never been a baboon, but I have been a mom, and consequently a mother baboon’s failure to call out to a separated youngster emitting distress sounds is not a bit puzzling to me. If I heard my toddler wailing on the other side of the road, would I call and say, “Don’t worry, mummy’s […]
- Humans
Nobel prizes honor innovative approaches
The 2002 Nobel prizes pay tribute to an international sampling of scientists who developed powerful new techniques for expanding the horizons of research.
- Earth
Lawn Agent Cues Embryo Shortfall: Herbicide weeds out mice in the womb
Minuscule amounts of over-the-counter weed killers impair reproduction in mice.
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19181
Reading your article, I was struck with a question: Do the oxen form a psychological attachment to their oxpeckers (and vice versa)? One way of finding this out would be to observe whether the oxpeckers remain attached to one ox or are fickle partners. Jeff Leer Fairbanks, Alaska
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19180
I cannot believe that a clinical trial of a new drug in a field in which there are accepted beneficial therapies would be either proposed as ethical by physicians or accepted by the Food and Drug Administration when containing a control group deprived of that beneficial treatment. For prior approval of the existing beneficial treatment, […]
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19179
I’m curious. What’s the significance of the planets sharing the same plane? Isn’t that a coincidence? Robert T. DruryLos Angeles, Calif. It could be coincidence, but the plane that roughly defines the planets’ orbits may indicate the orientation of the protoplanetary disk of gas, dust, and ice that originally surrounded the young sun .–R. Cowen
- Astronomy
Hefty Discovery: Finding a Kuiper belt king
A newly discovered celestial body appears to be the largest object that scientists have found in the solar system since their detection of Pluto in 1930.
- Humans
Physics for Sale: Collectors snap up pricey historical materials
Documents detailing the rise of modern physics and Albert Einstein's development of the general theory of relativity have sold at an auction for nearly $1.8 million.
- Health & Medicine
Attention Loss: ADHD may lower volume of brain
Brain-scan data show that the brains of children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are slightly smaller than those of their peers who are free of psychiatric disorders.
