All Stories by Science News
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From the August 29, 1931, issue
HUGE GENERATORS YIELD BEAUTY TO PHOTOGRAPHER Throbbing electric generators, the machines that are the heart of the great system supplying light and power to more than 120 millions, are odd and beautiful subjects for the talented photographer. In the picture on the cover, Rittase of Philadelphia has caught the spirit of one of the largest […]
- Tech
Reading Faces
Facial expressions can convey emotional nuances that words fail to communicate. Researcher Terrence Sejnowski has developed a computer program that analyzes images of human faces, purportedly matching the skills of professionals trained to read fleeting expressions of emotion. Learn more in an online article from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s HHMI Bulletin and at the […]
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18971
In the photograph of X-ray jets and point sources in the galaxy Centaurus A, shown in “Shocks jolt jet set galaxy, X rays reveal,” many of the point sources seem to be regularly spaced along arcs. The pattern is reminiscent of an X-ray diffraction pattern from a crystal (a microscopic event mirrored here on a […]
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Door to Antiquity
The Phimai temple complex in Thailand was an important Khmer economic, religious, and military center about 1,000 years ago. Richard M. Levy of the University of Calgary has created an elaborate computer reconstruction of this historic site, allowing visitors to wander the complex without traveling all the way to Thailand. Go to: http://www.phimai.ca/
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From the August 22, 1931, issue
THE GIRL ON THE COVER Her name is Janet Penserosa. She is about four years old and her home is at the New York Zoological Park. And now she can claim the distinction of being the first female gorilla to survive in Gothams animal center. Not only that, but she is probably the only gorilla […]
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18970
“Vaccine verity” describes several parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated, citing rumors. These people are gambling in a casino they don’t understand. Since the risk of their child developing a serious disease is still low, they will no doubt say, “See, vaccination isn’t necessary.” But parents who bet against vaccines and lost might […]
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Forest in the Clouds
See whether BatCam catches a tropical bat visiting a banana, or review QuetzelCam highlights for a murky but impressive view of how such a long-tailed bird jams its plumage into a nestbox. Or, if the cameras aren’t picking up anything in particular, visitors can listen to short recorded commentaries from such denizens as prong-billed barbets […]
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From the August 15, 1931, issue
ANOTHER TEMPLE TO THE WIND GOD Near the little Indian village of Prairieville–the Mexican name is Calixtlahuaca–archaeologists have made a rare and unusual discovery. They have found one of those circular temples to the God of the Wind, seen by the soldiers of Cortez, but not one of which was ever afterward found on the […]
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18964
Although the physiological basis and purpose of dreams may be uncertain, we need to recall that Freud was more interested in what his patients said about their dreams than in the dream content itself. Humans are inveterate interpreters. We are constantly reading our surroundings, our inner states, even our pasts and futures. Those interpretations often […]
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From the August 8, 1931 issue
TWO ARISTOCRATIC LADIES EMERGE FROM RETIREMENT There is something about newly-emerged silkworm moths that makes one think of the ladies of Cathay or Cipangu, long ago and far away, clothed in silk spun by ancestors of todays silk worms. In the cover picture of this weeks Science News Letter, Cornelia Clarke has made an admirable […]
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18963
I was distressed to read that Science News thinks there are no steroid hormone receptors in insects. Granted, their reproduction is not regulated by steroids, but ecdysone, the molting hormone, is certainly a steroid. There is some evidence that juvenile hormone, the hormone that regulates development and sometimes reproduction, acts through a steroidlike-receptor pathway. Other […]
- Astronomy
Anybody Out There?
This elaborate Web site brings together a wide variety of resources devoted to the question of life in the universe. Mounted by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and other European agencies, the site serves as home base for a competition aimed at eliciting responses from European students to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. […]
