Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. SN Online

    BODY & BRAIN Some U.S. presidents go gray in four years, but they still tend to live longer than average. See “Presidency not a death sentence.” A program in Nepal enlisting motorbike owners as emergency transport saves the lives of people bitten by snakes. Read “Scooters save lives of snakebite victims.” GENES & CELLS Tiny […]

  2. Science Future for December 31, 2011

    January 6–February 17 See five science and nature films on a 90-foot domed screen at the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Omnifest. Visit www.smm.org/omnifest January 19 The St. Louis Science Center hosts a science café event to discuss space travel. See bit.ly/SNsltravel February 4 The Maryland Science Center introduces a hands-on insect exhibit. See bit.ly/SNmdinsect

  3. Science Past from the issue of December 30, 1961

    EARTH AND PLANETS FORMED FROM DUST DRAWN TO SUN — The Earth and all the other planets of the solar system were formed from tiny dust particles accumulating around the sun as it passed through a vast dust cloud in space. This theory on the origin of the solar system was proposed in London by […]

  4. An Engineer’s Alphabet by Henry Petroski

    A selection of quotations, anecdotes and other engineering trivia is arranged into a mini-encyclopedia of the profession. Cambridge Univ., 2011, 360 p., $21.99

  5. Galileo’s Muse by Mark A. Peterson

    A physicist and mathematician argues that Renaissance art spurred the scientific revolution that laid the foundations of modern science. Harvard Univ., 2011, 336 p., $28.95

  6. Frozen Planet: A World Beyond Imagination by Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz

    Journey with four polar denizens — polar bear, Arctic fox, Adélie penguin and wandering albatross — through seasonal changes in this companion to a BBC television series. Firefly Books, 2011, 312 p., $39.95

  7. The Fossil Chronicles: How Two Controversial Discoveries Changed Our View of Human Evolution by Dean Falk

    A scientist who studies brain evolution examines fossil finds — the Taung child and hobbits — that are changing views of human evolution. Univ. of California, 2011, 259 p., $34.95

  8. Super Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things: Power Devices with Your Plants, Modify High-Tech Toys, Turn a Penny into a Battery, Make Sneaky Light-up Nails … Sneaky Levitation with Everyday Things by Cy Tymony

    Put your engineering skills to the test with this guide to building gadgets from common household items. Andrews McMeel, 2011, 145 p., $12.99

  9. Book Review: Relics: Travels in Nature’s Time Machine by Piotr Naskrecki

    Review by Allison Bohac.

  10. Book Review: Time Travel and Warp Drives by Allen Everett and Thomas Roman and How to Build a Time Machine by Brian Clegg

    Review by Alexandra Witze.

  11. 2011 Science News of the Year

    You can’t make this stuff up. An earthquake and tsunami trigger the worst nuclear accident in decades, contaminating thousands of square kilometers in one of the world’s most densely populated countries. Analyses of a sliver of finger bone reveal that the genes of an extinct human relative survive in many people living today. Single-celled organisms […]

  12. Find “extinct” fish alive in South African waters

    A “living fossil” gets new family members as more coelacanths turn up.