Uncategorized
- Earth
New test traces underground forest carbon
An unusual method of studying soil respiration by girdling trees may clear up several vital mysteries in the way carbon cycles through forests.
- Earth
Global Warming Debate Gets Hotter
President Bush gets the global warming report he commissioned just days before he meets with European leaders.
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18950
In the space of a single paragraph, you report that the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations conclude that human activity “very likely” has caused global warming and that “uncertainties remain about the role of human-generated gas emissions.” One can’t have it both ways. Given the uncertainties involved, President Bush is following the […]
- Math
Bubbles and Math Olympiads
Predicting the geometric shapes of soap bubble clusters can lead to surprisingly difficult mathematical problems. Which one of these two configurations of five planar bubbles of equal area has the smaller total perimeter? The more symmetric candidate isn’t always the winner. Frank Morgan Frank Morgan of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., recently illustrated such difficulties […]
- Math
Bubbles and Math Olympiads
Predicting the geometric shapes of soap bubble clusters can lead to surprisingly difficult mathematical problems. Which one of these two configurations of five planar bubbles of equal area has the smaller total perimeter? The more symmetric candidate isn’t always the winner. Frank Morgan Frank Morgan of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., recently illustrated such difficulties […]
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Geo Name Game
Is your name Bob? Want to see how many lakes in the United States are named after you? (Twelve in all, and four of them are in Michigan!) The U.S. Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) contains data about nearly 2 million geographic features in the United States. Just enter a name or any […]
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From the June 13, 1931, issue
TWIN ALBINO ROBINS HATCHED WITH NORMAL BIRD Two albino robins, highly interesting and rather rare oddities in the bird world, have been watched from hatching to early maturity at the home of H.D. Shaw of Grinnell, Iowa, and had their pictures taken by Miss Cornelia Clarke, nature photographer. The nest was built high up on […]
- Math
Surprisingly Square
Mathematicians take a fresh look at expressing numbers as the sums of squares.
- Health & Medicine
Immune attack on self halts nerve damage
T cells primed for autoimmune behavior may actually preserve nerves after a damaging blow.
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Catfish can track fish wakes in the dark
Infrared photography has revealed that catfish can stalk their prey by following wakes underwater.
- Health & Medicine
Enzyme defends germ against stomach acid
The newly solved structure of a Helicobacter pylori acid-fighting enzyme has scientists divided about how the enzyme works.
- Earth
Geologists take magnetic view through ice
A new map of the magnetic anomalies in Antarctica and the seafloor surrounding the continent is giving researchers a fresh tool to use in analyzing geologic features that lie hidden beneath thousands of feet of ice or storm-tossed seas.
