More Stories from the July 28, 2012 issue
- Life
Microbes flourish under Arctic sea ice
Oceanographic expedition surprised to find photosynthetic microorganisms thriving under frozen surface.
- Humans
European cave art gets older
Ancient illustrations in northern Spain date to more than 40,000 years ago.
- Humans
Color this chimp amazing
An extra layer of sensory perception called synesthesia might help ape make a monkey of humans on memory tests.
- Life
Chicks do worse in noisy nests
Baby bluebirds, and their parents, appear to have trouble communicating over the racket made by nearby humans.
- Tech
The descent of music
Using an evolutionary process, researchers create pleasing tunes out of grating noise.
- Life
Peacocks ruffle feathers, make a rumble
New recordings reveal that male birds use infrasound, emitting low-pitch sounds detected by peers but inaudible to human ears.
- Earth
East Coast faces faster sea level rise
From North Carolina to Massachusetts, waters are rising more rapidly than the global average.
- Health & Medicine
Learn to play piano in your sleep
That’s still impossible, but an experiment suggests hearing a previously learned ditty while snoozing improves later performance of the piece.
- Tech
Interactive map like GPS for Roman Empire
A simulation calculates the cost in days and dinarii of shipping goods throughout the classical world.
- Health & Medicine
Testosterone therapy takes off pounds
A five-year study shows that men getting the hormone consistently lose weight.
- Earth
Ozone hikes cardiovascular risk
The pollutant triggers inflammation and other changes that can heighten the risk of heart attack and stroke.
- Humans
What Silicon Valley can learn from Mother Russia
Imperial tax records from the last decades of the Empire offer clues to what makes a start-up succeed.
- Physics
Old battery gets a high-tech makeover
Redesigned nickel-iron battery gives modern lithium-ion devices a run for their money.
- Humans
Lead poisoning stymies condor recovery
California’s iconic comeback species may need human help as long as even a small percentage of the carcasses they eat contain lead shot.
- Health & Medicine
Male contraceptive shows promise
Two hormones in gels applied to the skin effectively lower sperm counts, a study finds.
- Animals
Dinosaur debate gets cooking
A key piece of evidence for cold-blooded dinosaurs, growth lines in bones, has also been discovered in a set of warm-blooded animals.
- Archaeology
Oldest pottery comes from Chinese cave
New dates show that East Asian hunter-gatherers fired up cooking vessels 20,000 years ago.
- Genetics
Convenience shoulders tomato taste aside
Decades of breeding for uniform color in unripe fruit may accidentally have reduced flavor.
- Animals
Climate adaptation may be a family affair
Newborn coral reef fish can cope with changed water conditions if their parents have already adjusted.
- Physics
Higgs found
The Higgs boson, the last particle in physics’ standard model, falls into place, opening new windows to explore in the universe.
- Microbes
Killing with the flip of a switch
A single genetic transformation turns mild-mannered bacteria into assassins.
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Science Future for July 28, 2012
August 5/6 NASA’s new Mars rover Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars late night August 5 Pacific Daylight Time (in the early hours of August 6 in the Eastern time zone). NASA TV will cover the landing live. Find updates on Curiosity at bit.ly/SFMarsland August 16 The 21-and-up crowd can learn about the Big […]
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SN Online
DELETED SCENES BLOG The Higgs boson discovery leaked a day early when SN found a CERN video announcement. See “CMS spokesman: ‘We’ve observed a new particle.’ ” SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC BLOG Huddling together during hibernation puts bats at risk for disease. See “Warning to bats: Cuddle not.” HUMANS The earliest signs of people drinking […]
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Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People by Harry Ostrer
This history of the genetics of the Jewish people delves into the population biology and genetic diseases that tie the group together. Oxford Univ., 2012, 264 p., $24.95
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The Ballet of the Planets: A Mathematician’s Musings on the Elegance of Planetary Motion by Donald C. Benson
A mathematician describes the history of the science explaining planetary motion. Oxford Univ., 2012, 178 p., $35
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Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame by Christopher Boehm
An evolutionary anthropologist looks back through human evolution for clues to how groups of hunter-gatherers developed altruism and generous behaviors. Basic Books, 2012, 418 p., $28.99
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- Particle Physics
Nature’s secrets foretold
After decades of searching, it seems scientists have found the elusive Higgs boson.
- Particle Physics
A primer on the long-sought Higgs boson
Discovering the Higgs boson is cause for celebration — and for explanation, of what the particle is and why it matters.
- Cosmology
Inflation on Trial
Generally regarded as one of the most successful theories about the early universe, inflationary cosmology is not exactly under attack. But a few scientists are questioning whether it deserves its reputation as completely untouchable.
- Health & Medicine
Catching a Cancer
The official figure for the percentage of human cancers caused by viruses is around 20 percent — but most experts concede that number is largely an educated guess
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Letters
Shopping standards shift with age In “When good moods go decisively bad” (SN: 6/16/12, p. 10), researchers assume that their 70-year-old study participants would be as interested as their 20-something counterparts in finding up to 40 prices on 60 products in an Internet shopping exercise. When the septuagenarians fail to choose the cheapest product, the […]
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Science Past from the issue of July 28, 1962
BATTLE AGAINST EXHAUST POLLUTION — The automobile exhaust problem is being attacked from many directions in an effort to preserve man’s most necessary commodity, air…. In response to regulations by local and state governments and prodding from the Federal Government, several exhaust-trapping devices for cars have come on the market, none of which controls all […]
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Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion by Andrew Robinson
The first English-language biography of linguist Jean-François Champollion describes his quest to decipher hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone. Oxford Univ., 2012, 272 p., $29.95
