All Stories by Science News
- Humans
Letters from the August 14, 2004, issue of Science News
It’s a groove thing I don’t want to downplay genuine discovery, but your story about optically reading old records left me a little underwhelmed (“Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings,” SN: 5/29/04, p. 339: Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings). The optical playing of records has been […]
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19452
Having just read “To Err Is Human,” I want to add some comments. I led men in combat in World War II when we overran several concentration camps. My men held their anger, and not one went below the line to become an animal just because the other guy had. I’d like to point out […]
- Humans
Letters from the August 7, 2004, issue of Science News
Pot shots Regarding “Pot on the Spot: Marijuana’s risks become blurrier” (SN: 5/22/04, p. 323: Pot on the Spot: Marijuana’s risks become blurrier), it seems to me that the stronger the social pressure against using marijuana in a culture, the more likely it will be that those who use it will be troubled, antisocial, or […]
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From the August 4, 1934, issue
Hard landing for stratospheric balloon flight, record drought in the Midwest, and chemical sprays to combat fog.
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19451
Speaking as someone with a Ph.D. in math who has spent most of his 30-year professional life unemployed and who can probably look forward to spending the rest of it unemployable, I was disappointed that this article made no apparent effort to find points of view other than the researchers’. Allan AdlerNew York, N.Y. People […]
- Animals
Whys Guy
Interested in seeing an exploding watermelon, using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream, or knowing why a hurricane spins? Physicist Mats Selen of the University of Illinois has appeared regularly on a local morning TV program to demonstrate a wide variety of physical and chemical phenomena. View video clips of these entertaining presentations. Requires Windows […]
- Humans
From the July 28, 1934, issue
Swamp dinosaur fossils found in Wyoming, secrets of famous violin makers revealed, and a cancer-causing virus.
- Earth
Hurricane Season
The U.S. Geological Survey offers a Web site devoted to the impact of hurricanes and extreme storms on coastal regions of the United States. Historical information reviews the effects of such hurricanes as 2003’s Isabel and 1996’s Fran. Another section looks at erosion along the U.S. West coast caused by El Niño-induced changes. The site […]
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19450
This is the most amazing paleontological article I think I have ever read. You state calmly that these “Canadian fossils are the oldest known examples of large, multicellular creatures” and that this type of creature “doesn’t appear to be related to any organisms that have lived since.” Would you please follow up on this discovery […]
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19449
Your article says that sunspots are 3,500°C. Yet further in the article, it says that the solar flare of Nov. 4, 2003, was 41 million°C. Is that a typographical error? Bruce BarnbaumGranite Falls, Wash. That’s no typo. The release of magnetic energy in the sun’s atmosphere during a flare heats the material that’s been ejected […]
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19448
I just read “Deception Detection” and I must say that I am surprised that no one used high-limit poker players to analyze if a person is bluffing. The art of poker is calling people on their bluffs. Martin J. WagnerIndiana University A successful poker player must be able to bluff successfully, at least on occasion, […]
- Humans
Letters from the July 31, 2004, issue of Science News
More than child’s play? While reading about the amazing properties of Archimedes’ Stomachion (“Glimpses of Genius,” SN: 5/15/04, p. 314: Glimpses of Genius), I wondered whether a mere child’s toy would exhibit such mathematical precision, with each vertex falling on a lattice point of a 12-by-12 grid. Perhaps Archimedes took the basic plan of the […]
