Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. Math

    Math Music

    Curious about the sounds of pi, the music of Fibonacci numbers, the blare of chaos, or the chimes of a DNA sequence? This interactive Web site, developed by Jonathan Middleton and his team at Eastern Washington University, provides a variety of tools for composing music based on mathematical recipes that convert sequences of numbers into […]

  2. ***Notice to Subscribers in Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina***

    The U.S. Postal Service has asked magazine publishers to suspend subscription mailings to areas that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Science News subscribers in those areas won't be charged for issues that are withheld, and their subscriptions will be extended. Mailings will resume upon notification by the USPS that delivery is reinstated.

  3. 19596

    This article, as presented, doesn’t address the statement made in the headline. The article shows only that on days when no pesticides are ingested in food, no pesticides are excreted in urine. Charles WyttenbachLawrence, Kan.

  4. 19595

    Chloride concentration in streams should be a concern to everyone. However, projecting problems at century’s end based on the present rate of chloride increase is bad science. Salt use in some New England areas has roughly doubled in the past decade due to a change in winter highway-maintenance philosophy. But salt is expensive and there […]

  5. Humans

    Letters from the September 24, 2005, issue of Science News

    Monkey see, monkey smell That monkeys get “weirded out” by seeing themselves in mirrors doesn’t seem unexpected (“Reflections of Primate Minds: Mirror images strike monkeys as special,” SN: 7/23/05, p. 53). Were a familiar or an unfamiliar same-sex capuchin seen, the test subject would be bombarded not just by visual images but also by smells […]

  6. 19594

    There was a line or two in this article about carnations with an aroma of Earl Grey tea or fruit loops. Well, here in the Sonoran Desert, we have wildflowers that smell like sweaty gym socks, grape Kool-Aid, or even rotting meat. When I was helping edit a desert-wildflower book years ago, I found the […]

  7. 19593

    I am dismayed and offended that you overlooked or avoided the circumstances of the under-12-year-old victims in this article. As much as half of Thailand’s sex tourism exploits preteen and preschool children. Valerie NielsenTemecula, Calif. Your article inaccurately states, “Thai Buddhists hold that each person’s soul inhabits many physical bodies over time….” Buddha has categorically […]

  8. ***Notice to Subscribers in Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina***

    The U.S. Postal Service has asked magazine publishers to suspend subscription mailings to areas that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Science News subscribers in those areas won't be charged for issues that are withheld, and their subscriptions will be extended. Mailings will resume upon notification by the USPS that delivery is reinstated.

  9. Humans

    From the September 14, 1935, issue

    Symmetry in electric transmission lines and the chemical composition of a male sex hormone.

  10. Microbes on the Air

    The MicrobeWorld Web site, produced by the American Society for Microbiology, offers access to daily 90-second news capsules that highlight the vital role that microbes play in our lives. These snippets, created for broadcast on radio stations, are now available as downloadable podcasts. The Web site provides instructions for subscribing to the podcasts for automatic […]

  11. 19592

    The pendular running gait described in this article as one of the most efficient bipedal gaits looks remarkably like the way eyewitnesses claim Bigfoot creatures move. In a Bigfoot hoax, one might use a gait that is unhuman but energy efficient, as the costume would be rather heavy. On the other hand, since such a […]

  12. Humans

    Letters from the September 17, 2005, issue of Science News

    Just Feynman A lot of people ask how someone like Richard Feynman, who played the bongo drums, loved practical jokes, and was an amateur safecracker and a bon vivant, could also win a Nobel Prize in Physics (“Dr. Feynman’s Doodles: How one scientist’s simple sketches transformed physics,” SN: 7/16/05, p. 40). Actually, all of Feynman’s […]