Uncategorized

  1. Paleontology

    All mixed up over birds and dinosaurs

    A bit of fossil fakery snookered a team of paleontologists

    By Richard Monastersky

  2. Infected butterflies reverse sex roles

    In butterfly populations afflicted by male-killing bacteria, females gather in frantic swarms to mate.

    By Susan Milius

  3. 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
  4. Health & Medicine

    Nerve 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

  5. For geneticists, interference becomes an asset

    A new method of disrupting genes, called RNA interference, works in mouse cells.

    By John Travis
  6. Astronomy

    X-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
  7. Math

    Fractal 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 […]

    By Ivars Peterson
  8. Math

    Fractal 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 […]

    By Ivars Peterson
  9. Humans

    Solar 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.

    By Julie Ann Miller
  10. Agriculture

    Moos, microbes, and methane

    A feed additive could reduce methane emissions from cows.

    By John Travis

  11. Ironing out underarm odor

    Chemicals that deprive bacteria of iron may improve deodorants.

    By John Travis

  12. Bacterial genes and cell scaffolding

    A bacterium may have revealed the origin of a key cell structure.

    By John Travis