Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Repainting the cosmic palette
After all the hue and cry about the color of the universe, astronomers have now revised their findings: It’s not pale green, but boring old beige.
- Health & Medicine
Researchers find how rhubarb remedy eases cholera
Researchers in Japan have identified a natural compound responsible for the effectiveness of one rhubarb-based remedy to combat the overwhelming diarrhea that comes with cholera.
- Planetary Science
Mars Odyssey instrument revived
Flight controllers have revived an instrument on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft that measures the amount of radiation bombarding the Martian surface.
- Earth
Rocks in Earth’s mantle could hold five oceans
Analysis of minerals created in the laboratory under conditions that simulate those deep within the planet suggests that the zone of rocks just outside Earth's core could hold enough water to fill the oceans five times.
- Earth
Zooplankton diet of mercury varies
By modeling a lake ecosystem in large tubs of water, researchers have found that zooplankton—an important link in the food chain—consume much less toxic methylmercury when the lake experiences an algal bloom.
- Animals
Lemonade from Broken Amber
The fossilized microbes found inside termites that have been encased in amber for 20 million years are remarkably similar to those found within the ancient insects' modern cousins.
- Tech
Taming High-Tech Particles
Researchers are beginning to study whether nanomaterials could have unintended negative consequences in the human body or the environment.
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From the March 26, 1932, issue
EASTER LILY UNFOLDS TALE TO X-RAY’S PIERCING EYE Ordinarily it is necessary to pull a flower to pieces to find what it is doing at any given moment in its development–and that, naturally, precludes one from following its development any further. One must turn to other flowers, at other stages of their unfolding, and ruin […]
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Seaweed Sights
Should dabberblocks, murlins, and sea whistles come up in conversation, here’s the page for figuring out what’s going on. The seaweed Web site, hosted at the National University of Ireland, Galway, offers a gallery of glamour photos of prominent seaweeds, as well as an introduction to the seaweeds we may not have realized we were […]
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If an animal can boost its immune system in response to shortening days, why would it not keep its immune system operating at that higher level all the time? Is there some physiological cost to maintaining a higher level of immune response? Michael LehnerGreenfield, N.H. According to Staci D. Bilbo of Johns Hopkins University in […]
- Animals
Cold Hamsters: Wild species boosts immunity for winter
Hamsters that have to survive winter outdoors in Siberia rev up their immune systems, including their response to psychological stress, when days grow short.
- Earth
A Confluence of Contaminants: Streams’ organic mix may pose environmental risk
The combined effects of at least some of several dozen organic contaminants newly identified in U.S. streams may pose risks to aquatic organisms.
