Science News

All Stories by Science News

  1. Science Future for October 9, 2010

    October 10 – 24 First USA Science & Engineering Festival, held in D.C. Go to www.usasciencefestival.org October 15 – 22 Third annual Imagine Science Film Festival celebrated in New York City theaters. See http://imaginesciencefilms.com October 16 New Smithsonian exhibit opens featuring a coral reef made of yarn crocheted into geometric patterns. Go to www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/hreef

  2. Science Past from October 8, 1960 issue

    DO SEA SERPENTS EXIST? — The flurry of interest in sea monsters gained new impetus in September 1959, when Dr. Anton Brunn of Denmark described captured larval eels six feet long.… [T]he unusually large size of the larvae suggested that the parents must be of huge size. The adult eels, perhaps 30 to 50 feet […]

  3. Letters

    Musical bonding In the article “Birth of the beat” (SN: 8/14/10, p. 18), Sandra Trehub says that music’s evolutionary origins remain unknown. Evolution is the sum of many acts of natural selection, so the question is, what survival advantage did music provide? The mother teaching her infant musical skills wouldn’t be so prevalent if survival […]

  4. Book Review: Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception by Charles Seife

    Review by Alexandra Witze.

  5. Book Review: The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

    Review by Rachel Ehrenberg.

  6. The 50 Most Extreme Places in Our Solar System by David Baker and Todd Ratcliff

    Tour Earth’s hottest, coldest, stormiest and stinkiest neighbors, plus the solar system’s weirdest phenomena. THE 50 MOST EXTREME PLACES IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM BY DAVID BAKER AND TODD RATCLIFF Harvard Univ. Press, 2010, 290 p., $27.95.

  7. Spider Silk by Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig

    Arachnid evolution is woven into this history of one of the strongest natural materials. SPIDER SILK BY LESLIE BRUNETTA AND CATHERINE L. CRAIG Yale Univ. Press, 2010, 229 p., $30.

  8. 2030: Technology That Will Change the World by Rutger van Santen, Djan Khoe and Bram Vermeer

    A survey of science and engineering breakthroughs that may lead to technological leaps. 2030: TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD BY RUTGER VAN SANTEN, DJAN KHOE AND BRAM VERMEER OxfordUniv. Press, 2010, 295 p., $29.95.

  9. How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki León

    Eighty-eight tales tell of science and superstition in the ancient world (including Alexander the Great’s mellification, or embalming in honey). HOW TO MELLIFY A CORPSE BY VICKI LEóN Walker, 2010, 308 p., $17.

  10. Much Ado About (Practically) Nothing: A History of the Noble Gases by David E. Fisher

    Delve deep into the far right of the periodic table with a chemist who appreciates noble gases’ many uses. MUCH ADO ABOUT (PRACTICALLY) NOTHING: A HISTORY OF THE NOBLE GASES DAVID E. FISHER Oxford Univ. Press, 2010, 264 p., $24.95.

  11. Science Future for September 25, 2010

    September 25Free admission day to 17 museums in Houston. See www.houstonmuseumdistrict.org September 30Peter Gleick gives an evening talk in San Francisco on Bottled & Sold, his book about the bottled water industry. Ages 21 and up. See www.calacademy.org October 4 – 6 Nobel Prizes announced for medicine or physiology, physics and chemistry. Go to http://nobelprize.org

  12. Science Past from the issue of September 24, 1960

    SCLEROSIS AND COSMIC RAYS — Radiation bombarding the earth from space may be a factor in the occurrence of multiple sclerosis, the Harvard University neurologist Dr. John S. Barlow believes.… Dr. Barlow’s statistical study of the distribution of multiple sclerosis shows that the frequencies of occurrence of the disease vary systematically with geomagnetic latitude. The […]