Uncategorized
- Astronomy
SOHO craft gets the lowdown on sunspots
Using sound waves to obtain the first clear picture of the structure beneath the surface of a sunspot, scientists say they now have an explanation for why these dark blemishes-sites of intense magnetic activity-can persist for days.
- Archaeology
Farmers took fast track in settling Europe
A review of radiocarbon evidence indicates that farming groups colonized southern Europe over no more than 100 to 200 years, beginning around 7,400 years ago.
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18978
The article notes that Joo Zilho has hypothesized that the rapid spread of agriculture in Europe occurred as a result of peoples need to escape conflicts in heavily populated communities marked by class and social division. I believe a more likely cause is the catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, which occurred 7,500 years ago. […]
- Paleontology
New fossils threaten an extinction theory
Recent discoveries of long-dead marine invertebrates call into question the occurrence of a catastrophic global extinction during the Late Devonian period, between 385 and 375 million years ago.
- Animals
She-male garter snakes: Some like it hot
Male garter snakes that emerge from hibernation and attract a mob of deluded male suitors may just be looking for safety in numbers and body heat.
- Physics
The Brazil nut effect gets more jumbled
New and puzzling evidence for why big particles bob to the top when mixtures of granular materials are shaken-the so-called Brazil nut effect-emerges from an experiment showing that even the air between grains plays a role.
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19041
I think this article ignored the major reason that large particles rise to the surface. The laws of inertia and momentum indicate that larger particles don’t react as quickly as smaller particles do at the end of each back-and-forth shake of the container. This means there is a force for relative motion between different-sized particles. […]
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18977
The occurrence of underflows or hyperpycnal currents originating from the mouth of the Salinas River should be no surprise, given the long-known riverine bathometric feature existing between the river and Monterey Canyon. The river has a high sediment load, so if these currents weren’t present, sediments from the Salinas River would settle on the continental […]
- Earth
Sediments Sink River’s Flow into Sea
Deep-sea observations of occasional sediment-rich plumes of fresh water dumped into the ocean by rivers suggest that such underflows may be a prime conveyor of pesticides, organic carbon, and various nutrients to the seafloor.
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From the November 14, 1931, issue
PHYSICISTS STUDY EFFECTS OF STRONG WINDS ON SKYSCRAPERS Another official government investigation is getting under way in Washington. The men involved in the new probe are studying a problem of vital concern to every city in America. The investigators working now are scientists, and their problem is to find out whether skyscrapers–including the 10- and […]
- Computing
Sneaky Calculations
The same communication system that brings you the Web page of your choice can be exploited to perform computations.
- Health & Medicine
Cholesterol enables nerve cells to connect
Neurons form connections with each other using cholesterol supplied by other brain cells called glia.
