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  1. Tech

    Many-armed magnets reveal stem cells

    Novel particles that combine magnetic crystals and many-branched polymers may permit doctors to track stem cells in people by using standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

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  2. Materials Science

    Can ancient stone avoid salt attacks?

    Researchers have found that a polymer coating can protect stone from damage caused by growing crystals.

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  3. Materials Science

    Carbon nanotubes turn on water flow

    Computer simulations show that water molecules will quicklye nter and flow along a carbon nanotube just 8 nanometers in diameter.

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  4. Astronomy

    Galileo catches Io in a slump

    Galileo spacecraft images show for the first time that material has slid downward along a cliff on Jupiter's moon Io.

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  5. From the December 19 & 26, 1931, issues

    SANTA CLAUS CAVALRYMEN BESTRIDE STRANGE STEEDS Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines bestrode an unfamiliar steed; but the gentleman in the cover picture mounts one more unfamiliar still. He might qualify as a trooper in the Santa Claus Cavalry, for he is mounted on a reindeer. According to the U.S. Biological Survey, reindeer are used […]

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  6. Astronomy

    Observing the sun’s magnetic pull

    A spacecraft studying the sun has spotted clouds of gas that seem to be headed the wrong way, falling back toward the solar surface instead of continuing to move outward with the stream of charged particles known as the solar wind.

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  7. If Your Poinsettia Sneezes. . .

    For a winter holiday treat, try the vividly illustrated pages from the American Phytopathological Society on the poinsettia and its history and diseases. The Web site begins with the tale of how a Mexican beauty of limited range grew into the United States’ best-selling flowering plant. Subsequent pages document the abundant spots, rots, and other […]

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  8. Astronomy

    A night of shooting stars

    Thousands of people in North America who got up early on Nov. 18 were treated to a memorable sky show: White, yellow, blue, and green fireballs, some leaving behind smoke trails, streaked across the sky.

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  9. 19047

    Reading this article was to me like déj vu. In the late 1950s, my late colleague Raoul Naroll concluded that more than 90 percent of the world’s cultures preferred the upright position for giving birth. In my own work with Martha Austin Garrison on Navajo birthing practices, we elicited many comments by older Navajos. Without […]

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Sometimes lying down is harder work

    Squatting or standing might ease baby delivery by allowing the birth canal more room to expand.

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  11. Science News of the Year 2001

    A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2001.

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  12. Math

    Guessing Cards

    Card-guessing tricks give a magician the opportunity to show off his or her mind-reading prowess. In many cases, the illusion of mind reading arises not from sleight of hand but as a consequence of some mathematical principle. One of the most startling of such prediction tricks is known as the Kruskal count, named for Rutgers […]

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