All Stories by Science News
- Planetary Science
Earthly Field Trip to Mars
Interested in seeing Martian landscapes and features up close on Earth? This Web site offers kids a “field trip” to formations in the state of Washington that resemble those found on the Red Planet. Take a look at floodplains, volcanoes, basalt columns, lakebeds, canyons, sand dunes, and more. Go to: http://www.kidscosmos.org/field-trip-to-mars.html
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I suggest that we view the results described in this article as indicating that humans frequently act like monkeys, not vice versa. Further, what is being measured as fairness may better be seen as the basis for envy and greed. It is not surprising that monkeys have the ability to display these tendencies, but they […]
- Humans
From the September 16, 1933, issue
HERDS OF WILD ASSES STILL ROAM MONGOLIAN PLAINS Wild asses, which still roam the vast plains of Mongolia in great herds, are marvels of speed and endurance, according to Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History, who has hunted and photographed them in the course of his many years of scientific exploration […]
- Planetary Science
More Mars—Better than Ever
On Aug. 27, Mars and Earth were closer to each other than at any other time in the last 50,000 years. Even as Earth and Mars slowly draw apart, the Red Planet remains a dazzling sight in the night sky. There’s still time to take in the view. Go to: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/08sep_goaway.htm?list110076
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What would sessile organisms do with information provided by the light from “their meals?” Just because spicules on a sea sponge transmit photons doesn’t mean that that’s their function. David ConteyBoulder, Colo. Each Euplectella sponge houses a pair of bioluminescent shrimp. The researchers speculate that the spicules transmit the shrimps’ light into the sponge’s surroundings. […]
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In your article on experimental hints of a new subatomic particle, three values are quoted for a particular charge-parity violation, all with error bar. Given the large uncertainties in two of these, the three are undistinguishable. Yet you claim that they “don’t agree.” Does no one look at error bars any more? R.A. WilliamsLos Alamos, […]
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It’s very appealing to think that a noninvasive test could pick up the earliest signs of cancers or cardiovascular disease. Despite passionate testimonials of how whole-body CT scanning “saved my life,” we don’t know what the tumors found really would have done. We don’t know that these patients’ lives were improved, much less saved. In […]
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The heading of this article should have been “The body generates a feeling of the brain.” The whole idea of Antonio R. Damasio’s theory is that bodily reactions precede brain awareness or a person’s awareness of a specific emotion. William Fudge Dania, Fla. Damasio’s theory is that the brain interprets bodily reactions linked to emotions […]
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Is it within the realm of feasibility that electrons possess an underlying quarklike structure in the manner of protons and neutrons? The hypothesis that electrons can be subdivided into smaller particles termed “electrinos” offers an ideal experimental opportunity to test this concept. Each contingent of such particles could be subjected to repeated expansions into ever […]
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I read and reread this article, hoping to find an explanation of where all those sediments have gone. From appearances, they surely all haven’t been deposited in the Gulf of California. Where else? Does anyone have any satisfying theories? Allen Glenn Abilene, Texas Sediments from the erosion of the Grand Canyon have ended up in […]
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Your article says elevated concentrations of glucose in the blood is “a problem that occurs downstream” of impaired response to insulin. Yet artery blockage is defined as a failure of cells to react to insulin. So, would not the problem be upstream of the impairment? Marry Morel Prescott, Ariz. Downstream of the impairment, here, means […]
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered to be an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that attacks the myelin sheath around neurons. If there were a relationship between myelin and psychiatric illnesses, as suggested in your article, then many people with MS would suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar illnesses. The study is much too small […]
