Uncategorized
- Paleontology
Beyond Bones
The forensic analysis of trace fossils such as footprints, nests, burrows, and even coprolites—fossilized feces—reveal subtle clues about ancient species, their behavior, and their environment.
-
18947
It was a bit of a shame that the fossil-trackway site pictured on the cover of the June 9 issue was not identified, as it is one of the more remarkable ones ever uncovered in North America . The tracks shown are a few of hundreds across the floor of a quarry near Culpeper, Va. […]
-
18946
Pluto is distinguished by properties other than its size, and its representation in “Nine planets, or eight?” as just another gray ball was misleading. It has the most contrasting surface known in the solar system (bright nitrogen ice caps and dark carbonaceous equatorial areas). To understand the processes ongoing on Pluto’s surface and within its […]
-
-
Robot Zoo
The Robot Zoo Web site, developed by the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Calif., captures some of the charm of a traveling biomechanics exhibit featuring giant robot models of animals. These fanciful contraptions provide insights into how chameleons, bats, and other animals eat, move, and see. Go to: http://www.thetech.org/exhibits_events/traveling/robotzoo/
-
From the June 6, 1931, issue
LARGEST WIND TUNNEL AND TOWING CHANNEL FINISHED Aeronautic research took a stride forward when two outstanding pieces of apparatus for testing and improving aircraft–both the largest of their kind in the world–were officially put in operation last week by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at its Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Langley Field, Va. […]
- Math
Prime Twins
Number theory offers a host of problems that are remarkably easy to state but fiendishly difficult to solve. Many of these questions and conjectures feature prime numbers–integers evenly divisible only by themselves and 1. For instance, primes often occur as pairs of consecutive odd integers: 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 11 and 13, 17 […]
-
18945
Regarding this article, wherein Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) findings are surpassed by BOOMERANG (Balloon Observations of Millimeter Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics) data, can you help me understand what happened to the Microwave Anistropy Probe (MAP)? It was expected to surpass COBE in many ways. MAP was to launch in November 2000, establish a sun-sheltered position […]
- Astronomy
Sounds of the universe confirm Big Bang
Two experiments examining the detailed structure of the cosmic microwave background, the relic radiation from the Big Bang, have confirmed the basic model of how cosmologists believe the universe evolved.
-
Dormant bacteria may spawn infection
Clinicians' standard methods don't detect the dormant phase of a bacterium that commonly causes urinary tract infections in women.
-
Undercooking makes germs strong
Precooking servings to sublethal temperatures before the final cooking actually makes germ killing more difficult.
-
18944
“Dirty money harbors bacterial dangers” brought back memories of my beloved grandmother in the 1920s. She always washed and ironed her dollar bills because she considered them to be unsanitary. F. Eleanor Warner Northport, Maine
