All Stories by Science News
- Humans
It’s About Time
What’s a year? Why do we measure it in days and weeks? How do calendars differ? What’s the earliest known date? (Hint: It’s the year Egyptians invented the calendar.) Learn answers to these and other timely questions at Calendars from the Sky, a site developed in part with support from the National Institute for Standards […]
- Humans
Letters from the October 13, 2007, issue of Science News
Another idea blown . . . Conservation by America is not going to decrease global warming (“Asian Forecast: Hazy, Warmer—Clouds of pollution heat lower atmosphere,” SN: 8/4/07, p. 68). We need to imitate known global-cooling events, such as the Krakatoa volcano explosion, which spread sunlight-reflecting dust into the stratosphere in 1883. A hydrogen bomb exploded […]
-
19889
The news is filled with observations of our species’ role in global warming and in the depletion of fisheries, arable land, fresh water, and fossil fuels. Yet I seldom hear the size of the human population cited as a driving force behind these problems. The easiest path to reducing our environmental footprint would be to […]
- Humans
From the October 2, 1937, issue
The mystery and magnificence of volcanoes, how bees dance to tell their hive-mates which flowers to visit, and the year's polio cases begin to decline.
- Health & Medicine
Yummy Bugs
Do you enjoy chocolate? You can make it more nutritious by bugging it—with crickets, for example. Or how about ant-fortified tacos? This site introduces Westerners to the idea that many commonly encountered insects are edible. Indeed, most are lower in fat—and higher in protein—than beef, lamb, pork, or chicken. The site’s author argues that “insects […]
-
19888
Other than people with HIV or AIDS, the prime model for a group overrepresented among those taking the option of physician-assisted suicide would appear to be educated, insured, financially comfortable, psychologically fit, nondisabled white males between the ages of 21 and 80. Perhaps the research simply demonstrates that we are loath to yield control, even […]
- Humans
Letters from the October 6, 2007, issue of Science News
Cat scam? Oscar the cat possibly does identify dying patients (“Grim Reap Purr: Nursing home feline senses the end,” SN: 7/28/07, p. 53), but the story you printed presents anecdotal rather than scientific evidence and does not belong in a science magazine. Julie EnevoldsenSeattle, Wash. Correlation is not causation. Could it not be that, somehow, […]
-
19887
In Rio Linda, Calif., on Oct. 4, 1957, my seventh grade classmates and I (the front edge of the baby boom) were busily clipping news accounts of Sputnik for our daily current-events assignment. Less than a year later, we became the first eighth grade class in the school’s history to enroll in Algebra I. Our […]
- Humans
From the September 25, 1937, issue
Insulin's molecular structure revealed, a new supernova observed less than a fortnight after an earlier one, and a hypothesis for how X rays kill cancer cells.
- Animals
Not Your Ordinary Amphibians
They resemble mondo worms or perhaps eels and snakes. But caecilians (seh sil yenz) are actually legless amphibians, and along with deep sea fishes are among the least well known vertebrates on the planet. Some run to a meter or more in length. Although information on these elusive animals and photos of them are hard […]
-
19886
This article states that Kenyan researchers report insecticide-treated bed nets can reduce malaria-related deaths in children. While these nets appear to provide preventive measures against malaria, my only concern is the toxicity of the insecticides. The World Health Organization lists two of the insecticides used on the nets, bifenthrin and permethrin, as possible human carcinogens. […]
-
19885
Astronomer Masanori Iye of the National Observatory of Japan blames the blurry appearance of meteor trails at about 100 kilometers altitude on the fact that they were photographed with telescopes focused at infinity. But optics teaches that any object much farther away than the focal length of the telescope is essentially “at infinity.” Wouldn’t a […]
