Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. Suggest Cancer Preventive

    Cutting calories to fight cancer.

  2. Letters

    Consciousness series pondered Hofstadter’s “strange loop” and other ideas presented in the article “Self as symbol” (SN: 2/11/12, p. 28) suggest, but never say, that the notion of “I” exists in the dimension of time, not space. Obviously then, consciousness is not a tangible object — not any part of the brain. Rather, the “I” […]

  3. Planetary Science

    Highlights from the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, March 19-23

    Geologic activity and weather on Saturnian moons, and studies in Greenland to learn about Mars.

  4. SN Online

    SCIENCE & SOCIETY Intel Science Talent Search finalists present their research. See “Science competition finalists go public.” ESO, B. Tafreshi, TWAN (twanight.org) ATOM & COSMOS Reflected light yields chemical clues in “Aura of life captured in Earthshine.” ENVIRONMENT A plastics ingredient bumps up insulin production. See “BPA fosters diabetes-promoting changes.” ON THE SCENE BLOG Researchers […]

  5. Science Future for April 7, 2012

    April 20–29 Science festivals in Philadelphia and Cambridge, Mass., both include science carnivals with games, plus check out video game-making in Cambridge and Astronomy Night in Philly. See bit.ly/fairCam and bit.ly/fairPhilly  April 28–29 Meet Bill Nye and the hosts of the TV show MythBusters at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C. See […]

  6. Science Past from the issue of April 7, 1962

    FRESH WATER FOR SPACE—Spacemen on the moon or on a space platform or spaceship may continuously produce more water than they need with a new high-temperature method of burning wastes described at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. Frank J. Hendel of North American Aviation, Inc., Downey, Calif., told the Society of a […]

  7. Letters

    A Boy Scout’s salute I am a Boy Scout doing the Communications Merit Badge. I am supposed to write to the editor of a magazine and express my opinion. I’ve always loved the Atom & Cosmos section because I’m very interested in particle physics and on the other end of the scale, cosmology. “Earth-y orb […]

  8. Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind by Mark Pagel

    A biologist examines the development of human culture and argues that evolutionary history has shaped humankind’s social tendencies. W.W. Norton & Co., 2012, 416 p., $29.95

  9. Vesuvius (Wonders of the World) by Gillian Darley

    This history of the famous Italian volcano examines its role as a cultural icon through the ages. Harvard Univ., 2011, 245 p., $22.95

  10. Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture by Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley

    A pair of archaeologists explore the earliest days of the first humans in North America and suggest these people may have had European roots. Univ. of California, 2012, 336 p., $34.95

  11. How Not to Be Eaten: The Insects Fight Back by Gilbert Waldbauer

    Insects’ ingenious means of avoiding becoming lunch are examples of evolutionary one-upmanship in action. Univ. of California, 2012, 221 p., $27.95

  12. The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet by Dimitar Sasselov

    The astronomer who coined the term “super-Earth” reviews the hunt for these possibly life-holding planets. Basic Books, 2012, 240 p., $25.99