Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. Painting Apollo: First Artist on Another World by Alan Bean

    One of the 12 men to have walked on the moon shares his experiences through his art. Smithsonian Books, 2009, 224 p., $39.95,> PAINTING APOLLO: FIRST ARTIST ON ANOTHER WORLD BY ALAN BEAN

  2. Triumph of the Heart: The Story of Statins by Jie Jack Li

    A medicinal chemist reviews the history of the  widely used cholesterol-lowering medications. Oxford Univ. Press, 2009, 201 p., $29.95 TRIUMPH OF THE HEART: THE STORY OF STATINS BY JIE JACK LI

  3. The Lives of Ants by Laurent Keller and Élisabeth Gordon

    A scientist and a writer team up to explore how these insects’ lives parallel human lives — in work, war and garden-tending. Oxford Univ. Press, 2009, 252 p., $27.95 THE LIVES OF ANTS BY LAURENT KELLER AND ÉLISABETH GORDON

  4. The Ethics of Protocells: Moral and Social Implications of Creating Life in the Laboratory by Mark A. Bedau and Emily C. Parke, eds.

    This text offers a variety of perspectives on the potential risks and rewards of developing self-organizing, microscopic entities. MIT Press, 2009, 365 p., $28 THE ETHICS OF PROTOCELLS: MORAL AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF CREATING LIFE IN THE LABORATORY BY MARK A. BEDAU AND EMILY C. PARKE, EDS.

  5. Einstein’s Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe by Evalyn Gates

    Scientists attempt to track down the invisible ingredients of the cosmos. W.W. Norton, 2009, 305 p., $25.95 EINSTEIN’S TELESCOPE: THE HUNT FOR DARK MATTER AND DARK ENERGY IN THE UNIVERSE BY EVALYN GATES

  6. Science Future for June 20, 2009

    June 26 Attend or watch the webcast of “Iron Science Teacher” at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Visit www.exploratorium.edu/iron_science July 19–26 Plumb the depths of cave science at the 15th International Congress of Speleology in Kerrville, Texas. Find out more at www.ics2009.us August 10–13 Scientists discuss the largest U.S. waterway at the Visions of a […]

  7. Science Past from the issue of June 20, 1959

    Mechanical cow eats grass — A mechanical “cow” has just started work at the British Agricultural Research Council’s experimental station at Rothamsted, near London. Its function is to extract protein from leaves or grass or any suitable vegetation…. Grass or other vegetation is fed into the machine from a normal elevator. After being chopped, the […]

  8. Letters

    Tobacco for adults, cocoa for kids I was interested in the report of cacao-beverage use by people of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico as early as A.D. 1000 (“Hot chocolate, with foam please,” SN: 2/28/09, p. 14). In the late ’50s, I and others at the Philip Morris Research Center looked at pipe samples from […]

  9. Neuroscience

    Book Review: Deep Brain Stimulation: A New Treatment Shows Promise in the Most Difficult Cases by Jamie Talan

    Review by Nathan Seppa.

  10. Book Review: The Bomb: A New History by Stephen M. Younger

    Review by Elizabeth Quill.

  11. A Mathematician’s Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form by Paul Lockhart

    Prevailing math education makes the grade but misses the meaning, a teacher argues. Bellevue Literary Press, 2009, 192 p., $12.95. A MATHEMATICIAN’S LAMENT: HOW SCHOOL CHEATS US OUT OF OUR MOST FASCINATING AND IMAGINATIVE ART FORM BY PAUL LOCKHART

  12. Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins by Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong

    Lucy’s discoverer and  a science writer detail advances in paleoanthropology. Harmony Books, 2009, 309 p., $25. LUCY’S LEGACY: THE QUEST FOR HUMAN ORIGINS BY DONALD C. JOHANSON AND KATE WONG