Uncategorized
- Tech
Cold Lighting
Solid-state light sources, such as light-emitting diodes, promise greater energy efficiency than do incandescent lamps. The Sandia National Laboratories has launched a Web site that offers articles, references, and other information on semiconductor-based lighting and its use for illuminating homes, offices, and public spaces. Go to: http://lighting.sandia.gov/
- Math
Prime Spirals
Precisely defined yet enticingly elusive, prime numbers occupy a central place in number theory. Evenly divisible only by themselves and 1, these special integers–2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, and so on–pose all sorts of conundrums. In a square grid, numbering squares instead of line intersections serves as […]
- Astronomy
Sharper Images: New Hubble camera goes the distance
Astronomers have unveiled a picture of the distant universe that ranks as the sharpest and most detailed ever recorded.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer Link Cooks Up Doubt: Heating may form potential carcinogen in food
Foods cooked at high temperatures contain large concentrations of acrylamide, a compound suspected to cause cancer in people, but researchers are cautious about acting on preliminary, unpublished data.
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19002
This article implies that the universe has a beginning and maybe an end. That seems to be a leap. I think we should not limit our thinking to a universe that was created at some point by a Big Bang or a Supreme Being. The facts in the article point to an event (maybe the […]
- Astronomy
Faded Stars Get New Role: Hubble takes a long look
By setting their sights on the galaxy's faintest stars, scientists have calculated the universe's age to be between 13 billion and 14 billion years old.
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19059
Ian Gotlib doesn’t disprove “clinical lore” that depressed individuals often cry. People who are depressed typically become preoccupied with their faults and shortcomings and less interested in the world, much less compassionate for others. That the study described finds that some people who are depressed do not cry in response to another’s sad situation doesn’t […]
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All Cried Out: Major depression puts lid on tears
A new study suggests that depressed individuals cry no more often in response to a sad situation than nondepressed people do.
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19001
I am deeply disturbed by the research involving manipulation of a rat’s brain to remotely control its behavior. Why does this article mention the researchers’ qualms about possible danger to the animal in entering risky situations but not the danger to the integrity of what we consider its conscious life? Ruth HousmanNewton Center, Mass.
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Rescue Rat: Could wired rodents save the day?
Researchers have wired a rat's brain so that someone at a laptop computer can steer the animal through mazes and over rubble.
- Paleontology
Ancient Whodunit: Scientists indict wee suspects in ancient deaths
Evidence locked in 180,000-year-old sediments suggests that a toxic algae bloom was the cause of death for a large group of mammals that were fossilized intact on an ancient lake bottom.
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Small Wonder: Microbial hitchhiker has few genes
Scientists have identified a microbe with remarkably few genes living on another microbe on the ocean floor.
