All Stories by Science News
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From the November 21, 1931, issue
TURKEYS The beautiful bronze turkeys that furnish the biggest specimens for the family festivities were domesticated before white men came to America. Cortez found them in the markets of Mexico, and showed that he was a gourmet as well as freebooter; for turkeys soon found their way to Spain and thence all over Europe, finally […]
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18978
The article notes that Joo Zilho has hypothesized that the rapid spread of agriculture in Europe occurred as a result of peoples need to escape conflicts in heavily populated communities marked by class and social division. I believe a more likely cause is the catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, which occurred 7,500 years ago. […]
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19041
I think this article ignored the major reason that large particles rise to the surface. The laws of inertia and momentum indicate that larger particles don’t react as quickly as smaller particles do at the end of each back-and-forth shake of the container. This means there is a force for relative motion between different-sized particles. […]
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18977
The occurrence of underflows or hyperpycnal currents originating from the mouth of the Salinas River should be no surprise, given the long-known riverine bathometric feature existing between the river and Monterey Canyon. The river has a high sediment load, so if these currents weren’t present, sediments from the Salinas River would settle on the continental […]
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From the November 14, 1931, issue
PHYSICISTS STUDY EFFECTS OF STRONG WINDS ON SKYSCRAPERS Another official government investigation is getting under way in Washington. The men involved in the new probe are studying a problem of vital concern to every city in America. The investigators working now are scientists, and their problem is to find out whether skyscrapers–including the 10- and […]
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Leonardo’s Bridge
In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci made a simple drawing of a great, 240-meter bridge that was to span an inlet at the mouth of the Bosporus River in what is now Turkey. The bridge was never built, but Leonardo’s design has been reproduced in a wooden bridge for pedestrians over a highway in Norway. Artist […]
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Dazzling Shooting Stars
The impending encounter between Earth and a cloud of particles ejected from comet Tempel-Tuttle is likely to produce a dazzling meteor shower, visible over North America in the early morning hours of Nov. 18. Bill Cooke of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides forecasts and viewing conditions for this year’s Leonid storm. Go to: http://see.msfc.nasa.gov/see/Leonid_Forecast_2001.html […]
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From the November 7, 1931, issue
HUDSON RIVER BRIDGE RIVALED FOR FAME BY NEW ARCHES While the completion of the great George Washington suspension bridge, which has hurled itself in one bold leap across 3,500 feet of the Hudson River from Manhattan to the New Jersey shore, is being celebrated, two other bridges, likewise the largest in the world of their […]
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19040
I enjoyed your timely article. Conspicuously absent, however, was any mention of the possibility that the disease is a vascular disorder with neurodegenerative consequences, rather than the other way around. The involvement of several dozen risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease that all reduce or impair cerebral perfusion in the Alzheimer’s brain adds ammunition to this […]
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19039
For a few unfortunate people, choline has a dark side. An inborn error of metabolism, trimethylaminurea, causes them to smell like rotting fish when they eat high-choline foods. Sara D. Brown Clinton, N.J. Good point. New labeling that identifies foods rich in choline should help people with trimethylaminurea avoid those foods. –J. Raloff As a […]
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Photo Treasures
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers an amazing library of more than 16,000 spectacular images, organized into a variety of topical sets. You can browse image collections devoted to coastlines, fisheries, ships, polar regions, severe storms, undersea research, nature reserves, flight, geodesy, coral reefs, and many other subjects. Go to: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/ .
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From the October 31, 1931, issue
CATS WERE WILD IN ANCIENT SOUTHWEST In ancient America, it was bad luck to meet a cat on a dark night. All the cats that the Indians knew were wildcats. Dogs were tamed and learned to follow Indian hunters and Indian children around, but cats walked by themselves, very wild and alone. The Indian pottery […]
