730 results
- Animals
Slow, cold reptiles may breathe like energetic birds
Finding birdlike air patterns in lungs of crocodilians and in more distantly related lizards raises the possibility that one-way airflow evolved far earlier than birds themselves did.
- Astronomy
Early Mars couldn’t hold liquid water long
Small rocks hit Mars 3.6 billion years ago, suggesting an early atmosphere too thin for liquid water to hang around very long.
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- Astronomy
Cradled galaxies betray violent past
Hubble snaps ‘the Penguin’ and its egg-shaped companion.
- Animals
To study turkey instincts, consider robot turkeys
In 2004, Australian researchers built robot turkeys to study the instincts of Australian brush turkey chicks. Robots can be a useful way of learning more about animals, but the use of robots has yet to take over in animal behavior studies.
- Animals
Don’t mount so fast! That bug could be a boy
Many insect males show same-sex mating behavior. What’s the cause? What’s the benefit? Is it real? Or are the bugs just in too much of a rush to stop?
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A Field Guide to Radiation by Wayne Biddle
From “absorbed dose” to zirconium-95, this alphabetical collection of essays makes an interesting guide to the nuclear age. Penguin, 2012, 258 p., $16
- Science & Society
Science slowdown
The recent federal government shutdown, which furloughed more than 800,000 government workers and may have cost the nation as much as $24 billion, has sent ripples through the nation’s scientific research enterprise.
- Life
Penguins may sniff out relatives
A zoo study sees hints of odor-based kin recognition in colony-dwelling birds.
- Life
Birds catching malaria in Alaska
The mosquito-spread disease may be transmitted north of the Arctic Circle as climate shifts.
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SN Online
BODY & BRAIN ‘Normal’ B12 levels may not be enough for the brain. Read “B12 shortage linked to cognitive problems.” LIFE A penguin can find its kin even in a sea of black and white. See “Penguins may sniff out relatives.” ATOM & COSMOS A NASA probe has found bizarre landforms on the planet nearest […]
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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
