All Stories by Science News
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19123
The opening paragraphs of this article make the curious observation that silicon dioxide is “little noticed outside the semiconductor industry.” That is, of course, nonsense. Silicon dioxide, widely known as quartz, is known to far more people than is silicon, the stuff of semiconductors. It has been valued by humans since we first started fashioning […]
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19122
I found this article interesting and informative. However, the story of life, both plant and animal, is the story of adaptation to changing environments. I am sure that if CO2 levels were to double in 50 or 100 years, most plants and animals would have little problem adapting. Considering that ice-core studies indicate that CO2 […]
- Humans
From the March 22, 1930, issue
THE SUN’S NEW TRANS-NEPTUNIAN PLANET The Lowell Observatory has made the discovery of a celestial body whose rate of motion and path among the stars indicate that it is a new member of the sun’s family of planets out beyond Neptune. Twenty-five years ago, Dr. Percival Lowell, director and founder of the Observatory at Flagstaff, […]
- Archaeology
Visit Ancient Corinth
Hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, this elaborate, regularly updated Web site features historical, literary, and archaeological information about the ancient Roman colony of Corinth in Greece. Browser plug-ins allow you to fly through the city, traverse digital maps, and view three-dimensional models of various structures. Go to: http://corinth.sas.upenn.edu
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19130
I would hope that the artist’s conception of a black hole is not shared by many. The term hole was an unfortunate choice, since it conjures up an image of a tunnel rather than the actual sphere. In reality, the halo of light around the periphery of the black hole would cover the entire sphere […]
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19129
This article is surely wrong in stating that the honey badger shuns meat. It aggressively attacks snakes and small mammals, as well as invades bees’ nests for honey. Derek WallentinsenSan Pedro, Calif. I was looking at the picture of the animal’s skull and wondering how large it is. There’s no scale for reference, so I […]
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19128
Perhaps much of the controversy about evolutionary psychology devolves from forgetting some basic biological definitions. The gene is the unit of inheritance, which has a complex and imprecise relationship with the mature, viable organism that has inherited it. The unit of evolution is the individual organism. Therefore, the arguments about what is more important in […]
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19127
It occurs to me that the techniques described in this article could have a wide variety of applications outside the biological sciences. For example, imprinted high-temperature ceramic materials could be used as less-expensive catalysts in automobiles and factory emission-controls systems. And filters made from such materials might be used to greatly reduce the quantity of […]
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19126
Chocolate as heart medicine? Not for those hearts that chocolate’s caffeine sends bumping around in their ribcages, it isn’t. How about doing another article, this time on the deleterious effects of caffeine in various medical conditions (erratic hearts being just one)? Caroline VickreyBethlehem, Pa. To be told that research is putting chocolate with tea and […]
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19125
It comes as no surprise to me that the findings of the study in this article may have implications for teaching kids to read better. Historic perspective suggests that rapidly presented acoustic and visual stimuli can benefit reading instruction, as Tallal asserts. We knew this process as “flash cards” when I was in school. Michele […]
- Humans
From the September 17, 1932, issue
ANOTHER GREAT WALL The Great Wall of China, winding like a mighty, protecting serpent along the old northern boundary of the Celestial Kingdom– Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of Britain, built and fortified to shut the barbarians of the north out of southern Britain in Roman days– And now, added to this small, select list […]
- Health & Medicine
Conquering Surgical Pain
Created by the Neurosurgical Service at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), these fascinating Web pages chronicle the introduction of ether as an anesthetic in 1846 at MGH and subsequent developments in anesthesiology. Go to: http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/History/ether1.htm
