Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Operation overload: Kids’ backpacks
Sixth-graders in Italy routinely carry school backpacks that equal, on average, 22 percent of their body weight, a finding researchers link to an earlier report that more than 60 percent of children in this age group had experienced low-back pain more than once.
- Health & Medicine
Hysterectomy often improves sex life
A study of more than 1,000 women who had hysterectomies finds that after the operation, women generally wanted and had sex more often, were more likely to reach orgasm, experienced less vaginal dryness, and were less likely to have pain during sex than was the case before surgery.
- Astronomy
A Dark View of the Universe
Two new studies suggest that galaxies may be surrounded by vast halos of dark matter extending at least 1.5 million light-years from each galaxy's center.
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19072
This article describes the use of interference patterns from laser light sources to measure the effects of gravity waves. This might lead one to conjecture whether there is an interference pattern that gravity waves by themselves might produce. A gravitational interference effect would correspond to gravitational “fringes” with more or less gravity and, therefore, areas […]
- Physics
Catch a Wave
Detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein's 1916 general theory of relativity may finally occur, thanks to a new generation of laser-based observatories.
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19012
I remember reading about Ishi back in the 1970s when I was a teenager, and I was saddened anew by the story of the repatriation of his preserved brain. I hope that Alfred and Theodora Kroeber’s child, novelist Ursula K. LeGuin, will at some point take up the intriguing question posed in your story. How […]
- Anthropology
Ishi’s Long Road Home
The reappearance of a California Indian's preserved brain, held at the Smithsonian Institution since 1917, triggers debate over the ethics of anthropological research and the repatriation process.
- Materials Science
Tiny gems on steps find future in films
The discovery of diamond-crystal seeds on steps in silicon may lead to long-sought, large wafers of pure, single-crystal diamond for electronics and other uses.
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19011
I was surprised to learn that scientists have yet to solve the secret of why the moon looks larger when rising. Years ago, I was told by a teacher that the moon looks biggest when rising (or setting) because the observer is looking through more atmosphere, and thus its light is scattered more, changing its […]
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The moon also rises—and assumes new sizes
The perplexing human tendency to perceive a moon on the horizon as larger than an elevated moon may arise from visual cues indicating that the horizon moon is located much farther away.
- Health & Medicine
Glutamate glut linked to multiple sclerosis
The chemical glutamate can overwhelm nervous-system cells called oligodendrocytes, adding to the nerve damage caused by wayward immune cells in multiple sclerosis.
- Physics
Electrical superball pulls itself together
A strong electric field can drive tiny particles of a superconductor to bind themselves together into a remarkably sturdy ball.
