Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. 19497

    I envision a beautifully colorful potato salad utilizing multiple colors of potatoes. But would a cooked mixture be like carrots with potatoes (minimal bleed) or like beets with anything else (maximum bleed)? Lorraine BauderSudbury, Mass. The red and blue pigments in the new potato lines are “water soluble and will leach,” notes USDA’s Charles R. […]

  2. Byrd Flight

    Produced by the National Science Foundation, this Web site commemorates explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd’s historic flight to the South Pole about 75 years ago. Chronicling how aircraft make scientific research in polar regions possible, the site contains an overview of Byrd’s accomplishments. It also features a first-person account of a commemorative flight that recently retraced […]

  3. Humans

    From the December 29, 1934, issue

    A young Crater Lake in Oregon, the internal structure of chromosomes, and a revolutionary method of electric power transmission.

  4. Humans

    Letters from the January 1, 2005, issue of Science News

    Just the facts My response as an educator to much of the outrageous science depicted in so many of the recent blockbuster hits is very different from that of many of the scientists quoted (“What’s Wrong with This Picture?” SN: 10/16/04, p. 250: What’s Wrong with This Picture?). The films provide a wonderful source of […]

  5. 19496

    This article mentions “ferricyanide, an electron-hungry molecule.” This puzzled me no end. Aren’t ferricyanide molecules, unlike their ions, electrically neutral? I’m trying to visualize ravenous molecules gobbling up innocent electrons. Ernest NussbaumBethesda, Md. Ferricyanide is indeed an ion, with a negative charge of –3. It’s electron hungry because, counterintuitively, it draws an electron from the […]

  6. 19495

    Your article reports that between 1973 and 1999, “the total area covered by almost 940 Swiss glaciers fell by 18 percent, an average rate of 1.3 percent per year.” An 18 percent loss over 26 years represents an annual rate of less than 0.8 percent. An annual loss of 1.3 percent would mean a total […]

  7. 19494

    Your article doesn’t state whether the people in the study were type 1 (insulin-dependent) or type 2 diabetics. As a long-time subscriber to Science News, I would appreciate it if you would try to state whether it is type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus, or both, in future articles. Carol Linn MillerNorman, Okla. The […]

  8. 19493

    It seems interesting that undersea flows have at least one characteristic different from rivers: “While river floods on land can create natural levees a few meters tall, the levees formed by [undersea] turbidity currents can grow up to 100 m[eters] high.” There are several sites on Mars where channels with loops can be seen. Although […]

  9. Dynamic Earth

    Rocks and minerals are the stars of this lively, interactive online exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History. In the pages now available (with much more to come), learn about various aspects of rocks and mining. The site includes a photo gallery devoted to minerals and a selection of mineral-related screen savers and […]

  10. Humans

    Science News of the Year 2004

    A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2004.

  11. Humans

    Science News Challenge

    Try the Science News current-events crossword puzzle.

  12. Humans

    From the December 15 & 22, 1934, issues

    Life on Mars, a substitute for morphine, the statistics of human behavior, ice and snow, and the top science stories of the year (1934).