All Stories by Science News
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19107
Your article seems to imply that there is something worse about spending 10 hours a week surfing the Web than other pastimes. Why isn’t 10 hours a week spent reading books, watching television, doing crossword puzzles, listening to music, or other solitary hobbies just as “socially isolating”? The sports fan who watches 10 hours of […]
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19106
If large black holes are at the heart of most galaxies and they are dark by definition and we have no way to tell what their size is, couldn’t they be hiding enough mass to make up the missing mass in the universe? Georges KaufmanTampa, Fla. A central black hole would not cause the visible […]
- Humans
From the February 22, 1930, issue
THE “BARREL” OF CORONA When high voltage surges on electric transmission lines jump an ordinary string of insulators, arcs form from one insulator to the other and destroy them. But when both ends of the string are protected by metal grading shields, the arc jumps through the air from shield to shield and saves the […]
- Health & Medicine
Surgery Guide
Designed for patients and their families, physicians, and students, this Web site provides detailed information about a variety of common surgical procedures, ranging from hernia repair to LASIK for vision correction. Illuminating diagrams and cutting-edge animation accompany each description of a type of surgery. Go to: http://yoursurgery.com/index.cfm
- Humans
From the August 27, 1932, issue
DEDICATE WORLD’S LARGEST POWER PLANT IN RUSSIA Dneprostroy was dedicated on August 25. This hydroelectric power project exceeds similar undertakings in size and difficulty of accomplishment. It is on the Dnieper river in the U.S.S.R. From an installed capacity of 756,000 horsepower, abundant electricity will be available to smelt iron and other metals and to […]
- Astronomy
Close Encounter
In mid-August, asteroid 2002 NY40 came within 524,000 kilometers of Earth. Students from Yale University using a telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory captured a sequence of images of the 700-meter asteroid. Strung together into a movie, these images demonstrate the asteroid’s impressive speed, as seen from Earth over a period of two hours. The […]
- Humans
From the August 20, 1932, issue
HYDROGEN REMAKES PETROLEUM INTO MORE USEFUL PRODUCTS Hydrogen, lightest of the elements, is a wonder-worker in industrial chemistry. The pushing of more hydrogen into substances, called hydrogenation, makes fluid vegetable oils into synthetic hard fats, carbon monoxide into useful methanol or “wood alcohol,” coal into lubricating oil and gasoline, and poor lubricating oil into superior […]
- Physics
Relativity and Gravitation
Learn more about the hot Big Bang, relic radiation, black holes, cosmic strings, inflation, and other topics at the frontiers of cosmology research. Offered by the Cambridge University relativity and gravitation research group, this Web site features illustrated explanations of key concepts, colorful movies, and a link to Stephen Hawking’s pages. Go to: http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/
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19104
In this article Swedish scientists report finding “as much as 200 µg/kg [of acrylamide] in mashed potatoes,” while stating in a subsequent paragraph that boiling potatoes “appeared to generate none.” I am curious to know how they make mashed potatoes in Sweden. I always boil mine. Paul NelsonHouston, Texas You state that boiled potatoes have […]
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19105
As a trainer of tracking dogs, I was interested in your article about attempts to duplicate electronically the scenting ability of dogs. Even if these expensive, high-tech artificial dog noses are successful, however, they are not likely to be of much benefit to the “62 countries worldwide” strewn with “more than 100 million land mines.” […]
- Humans
From the February 15, 1930, issue
ACRES OF PENGUINS IN ANTARCTICA Penguins by the acre are among the profusion of water animals inhabiting the regions adjacent to the desolate lands of Antarctica that help make its exploration of value, Dr. Isaiah Bowman, director of the American Geographical Society, told the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Bowman spoke in the 141-year-old hall of […]
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Issues of Genetic Fitness
Using historic photographs and documents, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s DNA Learning Center presents an eye-opening, troubling chronicle of the U.S. eugenics movement in the early 20th century. The archive’s aim is to stimulate people to think about possible similarities between eugenics, dedicated to improving human genetic stock through better breeding, and some current discussions […]
