Uncategorized
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Joined at the Senses
As evidence accumulates for the existence of brain cells that handle many types of sensory information, some scientists challenge the popular notion that perception is grounded in five separate senses.
- Astronomy
After a failure, a new craft to sail
Despite the July 20 failure of its mission to test the unfurling of a solar sail in a suborbital trajectory, the Planetary Society announced plans in late August to conduct a second test of a sail-propelled craft.
- Astronomy
A meteorite’s pristine origins
A rare, carbon-rich meteorite that fell into a frozen Canadian lake last year ranks as the most pristine of such specimens ever found.
- Astronomy
Gravity’s lens: Finding a sextet of images
Astronomers have for the first time found a gravitational lens in which the image of a distant galaxy has been split into six distinct images.
- Astronomy
Gravity’s lens: Finding a dim cluster
Relying solely on a gravitational mirage rather than visible images, astronomers have discovered a previously unknown cluster of galaxies and measured its distance from Earth.
- Earth
Dust, the Thermostat
Analyses suggest that dust has profound, complex, and far-reaching effects on the planet's climate.
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Issues of Medical Research
Should researchers be allowed to tinker with our genetic codes, or create copies of human beings? Could we somehow be harming future generations by aiding sick people today? Public Agenda Online offers a nonpartisan guide to these and other policy issues related to medical research. Go to: http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/frontdoor.cfm?issue_type=medical_research
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From the September 26, 1931, issue
FLASH WELDING JOINS METAL AMID SHOWER OF SPARKS A brilliant shower of sparks for a few seconds, and two pieces of steel have become one, with a union as strong as the original metal itself. The picture on the front cover from the Pittsfield, Mass., works of the General Electric Company illustrates a recent adaptation […]
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Youthful nicotine addiction may be growing
Although the rate of daily cigarette smoking has declined among teenagers and young adults over the past 20 years, the number of smokers in this age range who develop nicotine dependence has risen dramatically.
- Health & Medicine
Alcohol on your breath need not be all bad
Drugs such as insulin may be delivered by inhaling mists of medicine-containing alcohol.
- Animals
Shhh! Is that scrape a caterpillar scrap?
A series of staged conflicts reveals the first known acoustic duels in caterpillars.
- Health & Medicine
Drugs slow diabetes patients’ kidney damage
Two drugs normally prescribed for high blood pressure help forestall kidney damage in people with type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes.
