Uncategorized
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From the April 9, 1932 issue
SPIDERS’ EGGS FORM PATTERN LIKE MOSAIC OF PEBBLES Like a rough mosaic of pebbles is the array of spider’s eggs photographed by Cornelia Clarke and reproduced on the cover of this week’s Science News Letter. Although smaller than small pinheads, the enlarging lens brought the eggs up to such apparent size that they were guessed […]
- Astronomy
Galaxy Hunter
At the interactive “Galaxy Hunter” Web site, students use data from the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate a bewildering assortment of deep-space galaxies in various stages of evolution–and learn statistical concepts such as sample variability and size along the way. Go to: http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/ghunter/
- Materials Science
A Field of Diminutive Daisies
Researchers have created tiny daisies as a demonstration of a new technique that creates three-dimensional structures from carbon nanotubes.
- Health & Medicine
Blood Vessel Poisoning: Arsenic narrows artery that feeds brain
New research suggests that drinking arsenic-laden water can produce dangerous narrowing in the carotid artery, which channels blood through the neck to the brain.
- Health & Medicine
Scrambled Drugs: Transgenic chickens could lay golden eggs
Scientists have created transgenic chickens able to produce foreign proteins—and, potentially, pharmaceuticals—in their eggs.
- Animals
Lamprey Allure: Females rush to males’ bile acid
An unusual sex attractant has turned up in an analysis of sea lampreys, and it may inspire new ways to defend the Great Lakes against invasive species.
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Night Patrol for Tired Cops: Police lose sleep over workday hassles
A large proportion of big-city police officers suffers from insomnia and other serious sleep problems that stem from chronic work stress.
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19070
According to this article, osmium is the least compressible of materials. When I looked at an encyclopedia article about osmium, I was surprised to discover that its name comes from a Greek root that means “odor.” I’d always thought it was named after the generic Anglo-Saxon word for a god, which is “os.” Gerald BakerCedar […]
- Materials Science
Osmium is Forever: Rare metal’s strength humbles mighty diamond’s
A new route to materials harder than diamond may have opened with the surprising finding that the rare metal osmium resists compression better than diamond does.
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Hot Cereal: Rice reveals bumper crop of genes
Two research groups have identified all the genes in rice, the world's most important crop.
- Archaeology
New World hunters get a reprieve
New radiocarbon evidence indicates that, beginning around 11,000 years ago, human hunters contributed to North American mammal extinctions that had already been triggered by pronounced climate shifts.
- Archaeology
Stone Age Siberians move up in time
Siberian sites previously thought to have been bases for early human excursions into North America may only date to about 11,300 years ago, when people have traditionally been assumed to have first reached Alaska.
