All Stories by Science News
- Humans
Letters from the November 17, 2007, issue of Science News
Unequal opportunity “The Wealth of Nations” (SN: 9/1/07, p. 138) describes the difficulty of moving from exporting one product to exporting another in terms of a “distance” between various products. I would imagine, however, that a nation that already manufactures computers, for example, could easily move into calculators, but that the reverse might not be […]
- Humans
From the November 6, 1937, issue
Giant electrical generators take shape in Pittsburgh, astronomers puzzle over unusual stellar spectra, and a dinosaur ancestor from Texas visits Harvard.
- Humans
Where’s the Fire?
The National Interagency Fire Center tracks big wildfires blazing around the United States and identifies—via its InciWeb—which ones are contained, along with running totals for acres scorched so far this year. The site offers tables of multi-year fire records, interesting stats, as well as maps of current outbreaks. Go to: http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info.html
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19899
Soil water picks up carbon dioxide generated when soil organic matter decomposes, and this then escapes to the atmosphere. This study should give pause to those who insist that man-made materials be biodegradable. When biodegradable materials decompose they add CO2 back into the atmosphere more quickly than otherwise. Nonbiodegradable materials serve to keep organic carbon […]
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19898
You refer to Lonesome George, the Galápagos tortoise, as “misanthropic”—meaning a hater of people. He certainly has good reason to dislike humans, but I wonder how the investigators could tell. Or did you mean that George doesn’t like other tortoises, and is therefore antisocial? Roman KozakOmaha, Neb. Lonesome George’s lack of gregariousness extends across species: […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 10, 2007, issue of Science News
Thinking it through Bjorn Merker says that “the tacit consensus concerning the cerebral cortex as the ‘organ of consciousness’ … may in fact be seriously in error” (“Consciousness in the Raw,” SN: 9/15/07, p. 170). But the real tacit consensus is that the cerebral cortex is the organ of conceptual consciousness, of thinking and reasoning, […]
- Math
Numbers, by Any Other Name
Most Westerners have come to represent numbers with Hindu-Arabic characters. But many cultures don’t—and historically, a whole range of alternatives have been used. View many at this site, which was developed by Archimedes’ Laboratory, a group that specializes in creating puzzles and brain teasers. Go to: http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numeral.html
- Humans
From the October 30, 1937, issue
A photographer captures the coming of winter, motion pictures show how cancer spreads through the blood, and engineers get new oil from old Pennsylvania wells.
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19897
This article suggests that Ritalin fails to “cure” attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Ritalin for ADHD is like glasses for a vision problem. True, it aids some functions and not others—visual memory, not executive function, for example. But for the right child at the right time, Ritalin can be tremendously helpful, especially combined with other support the […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 3, 2007, issue of Science News
Waste not, want not “Cellulose Dreams” (SN: 8/25/07, p. 120) ignored important research by David Tilman and Jason Hill of the University of Minnesota. They found that planting a crop of 18 different native prairie plants grown in highly degraded and infertile soil with little fertilizer or chemicals yielded substantially more bioenergy than a single […]
- Chemistry
Chemistry—Weird and Otherwise
During this—Chemistry Week—check out the “Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Chemistry.” The site’s periodic postings are offered up by Bryn Mawr College computational chemist Michelle M. Francl, who comments on events of the day—always inserting a gentle chemistry twist. She notes that her blog “began as part of an NSF grant to write […]
- Humans
From the October 23, 1937, issue
Soviet hydroelectricity powers electric farm equipment, breeding programs create rats with cancer resistance and rabbits with an extra rib, and artificial fertilization is made to work in fruit flies.
