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All Stories by Science News
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Physics
Quantum Diaries
What’s it like being a physicist? For the “World Year of Physics” in 2005, more than 30 physicists from around the world are providing occasional glimpses of their lives throughout the year via blog entries, video clips, and photos. Go to: http://interactions.org/quantumdiaries/
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19556
There is information that when we imagine things, we activate some of the same brain mechanisms as when we experience them physically. It would be interesting to know whether imagining the scent of a food that one likes “lights up the brain” as actually smelling that food does. Seems like a reasonable description of what […]
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19555
Maybe there was a belch of hydrogen sulfide involved in the Permian extinctions. However, did it leave some geological trace, as did the vast Siberian outpourings of magma, both on land and in the sea, over the course of a million years during the period? Stan SkirvinScottsdale, Ariz. The ocean venting proposed by Lee Kump’s […]
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19554
This article features yet another study making summary statements on what is obviously inadequate sampling. Most of the language families from California to Alaska have not been represented in any DNA studies. Those of us who study cultures on the northwest coast of America see the enormous complexities of cultures in this area. Outdated and […]
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19553
This article should also point out that only a very thick atmosphere could have allowed the surface temperature to be high while the radiation output from the sun was only 70 percent that at the present. J. Thomas BaylorAustin, Texas Theorists agree that the atmosphere of Mars was thicker when the planet was wetter. They’re […]
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Cockroach Study
For students and teachers, this Web page by high school biology teacher Mary Colvard offers a lesson plan for a lab in which students look for signs of learning in cockroaches. The lesson plan includes background information about cockroaches. Go to: http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1995/colvard_cockroach.html
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Humans
Letters from the May 21, 2005, issue of Science News
Rascal rabbits Evidence of animals sensing where people are looking and what they’re seeing is interesting yet hardly new (“Monkey See, Monkey Think: Grape thefts instigate debate on primate’s mind,” SN: 3/12/05, p. 163). For years, I have observed that wild rabbits will remain motionless as long as I stare in their direction. But as […]
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Humans
From the May 18, 1935, issue
Making heavy water, probing the cause of multiple sclerosis, and establishing galaxy rotation.
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19552
This article, on the deleterious effect of dams on coastal systems, contains a major conceptual error. It states that “another important cause of the ground sinking is the waning of sediment deposition by the Mississippi River.” But over the past 100 million years, the northern Gulf Coast region has been subsiding because of excessive sediment […]
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Humans
Letters from the May 14, 2005, issue of Science News
It’s kids’ stuff Regarding the therapeutic effects of sunflower-seed oil on infants (“Anoint Them with Oil: Cheap-and-easy treatment cuts infection rates in premature infants,” SN: 3/12/05, p. 165), has any research been done as to the health benefits of the oil in any other age group? Yael LevyNew York, N.Y. Research to date has focused […]
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Humans
From the May 11, 1935, issue
Falconry in the United States, new 'ears' for anti-aircraft guns, and Albert Einstein's objections to quantum mechanics.
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Amazing Paper Airplanes
If you want to build paper airplane models of the space shuttle, F-16 Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet, and other aircraft, this page from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers offers plans and folding instructions. For additional designs, see Kyong H. Lee’s “Amazing Paper Airplanes” Web site. Go to: http://www.asme.org/events/flight/paperarchive.shtml?URL=www.asme.org and http://www.amazingpaperairplanes.com/