Uncategorized
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Mass illness tied to contagious fear
Researchers have linked a recent outbreak of illness at a Tennessee high school to psychological factors rather than toxic gas exposure, as originally suspected.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & MedicineNerve cells of ALS patients harbor virus
Fragments of viral genetic material show up with unusually high frequency in nerve tissue of patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, suggesting a link between the virus and this lethal illness.
By Nathan Seppa -
For geneticists, interference becomes an asset
A new method of disrupting genes, called RNA interference, works in mouse cells.
By John Travis -
AstronomyX-ray Data Reveal Black Holes Galore
Using a sensitive, new X-ray telescope, astronomers have identified the origin of the high-energy part of the X-ray background and found that supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies are far more numerous than visible-light surveys indicate.
By Ron Cowen -
MathFractal Roots and Artful Math
The term “mathematical art” usually conjures up images of M.C. Escher’s endless staircases, Möbius-strip ants, and mind-boggling tilings. Or it might remind one of the intimate intertwining of mathematics and art during the Renaissance with the development of perspective painting and eye-teasing stagecraft. A view of the recent MathArt/ArtMath show at the Selby Gallery in […]
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MathFractal Roots and Artful Math
The term “mathematical art” usually conjures up images of M.C. Escher’s endless staircases, Möbius-strip ants, and mind-boggling tilings. Or it might remind one of the intimate intertwining of mathematics and art during the Renaissance with the development of perspective painting and eye-teasing stagecraft. A view of the recent MathArt/ArtMath show at the Selby Gallery in […]
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HumansSolar series wins award for Science News
The Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society has given its 2002 popular writing award to Ron Cowen and Sid Perkins for a two-part series on cyclic variations in the sun's activity.
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AgricultureMoos, microbes, and methane
A feed additive could reduce methane emissions from cows.
By John Travis -
Ironing out underarm odor
Chemicals that deprive bacteria of iron may improve deodorants.
By John Travis -
Bacterial genes and cell scaffolding
A bacterium may have revealed the origin of a key cell structure.
By John Travis -
AstronomySeeing Red: A cool revival of Hubble’s infrared camera
New images provide a graphic demonstration that the Hubble Space Telescope's infrared vision has been restored.
By Ron Cowen -
Health & MedicineEfficient Germ: Human body boosts power of cholera microbe
Some genes in the cholera-causing bacterium Vibrio cholerae are activated and others are silenced when the microbe passes through the human gut, changes that make the bacterium more virulent.
By Nathan Seppa