All Stories by Science News
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19171
After reading this article, I couldn’t believe that the manuscript didn’t identify the chemical substance involved. Eck Prud’hommeFort Worth, Texas The amino acid mentioned in the story is p -aminophenylalanine .–J. Gorman
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19208
I wonder whether researchers offer any recommendations based on a difference in effect between ingesting vitamin A and beta-carotene. Do people who consume large amounts of yellow vegetables, for example, put themselves at risk? Mary A. TurzilloBerea, Ohio Yellow fruits and vegetables contain large amounts of the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene. However, says Margo Denke […]
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19170
Researchers’ conclusions in this article that there is a “need to revisit controversial claims about the health benefits and risks of bed sharing for babies” seem to me to miss the point. The health benefits and risks of any sleeping environment should be of concern. Focusing solely on bed sharing implies that crib use is […]
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19161
You are usually pretty good at explaining things to those of us outside the hard sciences, but the speed of gravity? Speed of light OK, but what is the speed of gravity? Robert L. SchragNorth Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, N.C. An object with mass creates a gravitational field around itself. Imagine that the object moves; then, […]
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19160
I found the “stats” about blood donors and patients in this article misleading, with the implication that 8 million volunteer donors are more than enough for 4.5 million patients. A comparison of how many people donate blood during their lives and how many people need blood donations during theirs might have been more informative. We […]
- Humans
From the January 21, 1933, issue
SEVEN SLEEPERS CATACOMBS EXPLORED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS One of the most venerable of Christian legends, running back through the middle ages into late antiquity, is that of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus: seven youths who hid themselves from the persecution of a pagan Roman emperor and awoke 200 years later to find the empire Christian. Then, […]
- Earth
Earth Art
Brilliant, colorful patches of Earth, as seen in photographs snapped by the Landsat-7 satellite, can look like the work of abstract artists. A number of these beautiful, high-resolution images have now been assembled into an online gallery depicting “Our Earth as Art.” Go to: http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthasart/
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19207
The negotiators of the global persistent organic pollutants (POPs) treaty will include country-specific exemptions for continued use of DDT for malaria control in the approximately two dozen countries still using it. Nevertheless, your article also notes that DDT may soon be unavailable in many malaria-stricken regions. To address this concern, countries should consider some form […]
- Humans
From the June 28, 1930, issue
MULTIPLE AILERONS When men first began to dream of flying like birds (which they have done ever since the legendary Daedalus), they watched the flight of birds, hoping to catch their trick and learn to imitate them. The many-faceted Leonardo used to spend hours and days watching and sketching pigeons. And when at last the […]
- Health & Medicine
Herbal Activity
The Alternative Medicine Foundation offers a searchable database that provides scientific and general information about the biochemical activity of a variety of herbs, from Achillea (Yarrow) to Ziziphus (Jujube). The entry for each herb includes warnings about dangers to human health and links to relevant abstracts in the scientific literature. Go to: http://www.herbmed.org
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19206
Your article has a picture of a “deer stone.” On it are engraved designs of reindeer that bear an astonishing resemblance to a tattoo borne by the 2,400-year old mummy discovered in 1993 in central Asia. Was this noticed by the researchers? Michelle BlanchardOlympia, Wash. Absolutely. William Fitzhugh, an expedition leader, says he was struck […]
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19159
I read your article with great interest. There was a minor emergence of periodical cicadas this year in the area. However, despite what the article says, I don’t believe it was a brood emerging 4 years early. In 1983, 4 years before the last major emergence, there was a similar minor emergence. The 2000 emergence […]
