All Stories by Science News
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19154
The initial conclusions of the study of Romanian children raised in orphanages and adopted in Britain would seem to this adoptive parent to be prematurely optimistic. A study based on subjects aged only up to 6 years can hardly conclude that severe deprivation “doesn’t inevitably undermine social functioning.” On the basis of the experience of […]
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19153
Your article describes the economic and environmental costs of semiconductor chips. Interestingly, the impacts on the environment are very similar for the manufacture of solar cells. Many environmentalists place such unrealistic expectations on solar cell energy that they overlook certain facts. First, solar cells yield at most 30 percent efficiency. Second, solar cells do not […]
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19152
It’s not surprising that training may enhance intellect in the elderly. What would be remarkable would be for the elderly to be completely incapable of learning. The real question is whether cognitive training works against whatever causes cognitive decline in the elderly or whether it merely boosts base-level ability. The former would be indicated only […]
- Humans
From the May 24, 1930, issue
GRASSHOPPERS THREATEN UNITED STATES Grasshoppers threaten to wreak heavy damage to grain and forage crops in Montana and the Dakotas this year. There were many hoppers in these states, and in parts of Texas, last year, and the eggs they laid are now hatching in large numbers. If climatic and other conditions favor the growth […]
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Explore Mars
NASA has made more than 100,000 images of Mars available as a Web-based photo album. The archive of pictures, taken by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor, covers the period from September 1997 to the present. Go to: http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/index.html
- Humans
From the November 12, 1932, issue
FIRST WELDED PENSTOCK BUILT IN CALIFORNIA Welding, an abundant source of beautiful photographs, furnishes another picture for the front cover of the Science News Letter this week; but beauty was not sufficient reason for its prominence in the cover position. The picture was taken within a welded pipe, one-fourth-mile long, tilted up a mountainside at […]
- Health & Medicine
Cooking Science
The Exploratorium’s “Science of Cooking” Web pages offer all sorts of advice on how to improve your cooking–with a pinch of science. Information, recipes, and activities focus on spices, bread, meat, eggs, and more. Experience the thrill of pickle making and learn about a zesty dish called kimchi. Explore the science of cooking your holiday […]
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19197
The article notes that X-ray radiation from XTE J1550-54 jets is puzzling because the radiation of the nearer jet, which is moving toward Earth, isn’t as bright as that of the more distant jet. Perhaps as a jet strikes material, the radiation is dispersed back toward the jet source. Thus, the more distant jet could […]
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19151
While reading your article regarding the primitive antibodies found in lancelets, it occurred to me that complex immune systems might be merely a highly specialized, evolved form of digestion. Presumably, evolutionary adaptation would tend to favor a critter that found a way to consume even those nasty, yucky, infectious microbes. Mel ZernowColusa, Calif.
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19150
Your article reports that only two category 5 storms have hit our coastlines. We here in southern New England know that the “Hurricane of 1938” should be counted, too. The indirect evidence of the storm’s power is compelling. The only wind instrument, over 50 miles from landfall, recorded a gust of 189 miles per hour […]
- Humans
From the November 5, 1932, issue
FIELD MUSEUM VISITORS SEE BIT OF ABYSSINIA Visitors to Chicago can make an effortless side trip to the wilds of Abyssinia by walking down the Carl Akeley Memorial Hall of African Animals in the Museum of Natural History. At the end, a remarkable new group of African mammals has been arranged so as to give […]
- Archaeology
Digging into Ancient Texts
For both scholars and amateur archaeologists, the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative Web site offers fascinating glimpses of a distant past. Visitors can view images of thousands of carefully catalogued cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia. The texts include early creation myths, legal codes, medical prescriptions, and recipes for beer. Many are more mundane–ledgers, deeds, receipts, and lists […]
