More Stories from the April 11, 2009 issue
- Animals
Public tantrums defeat monkey moms too
Rhesus macaque moms are more likely to give in to screaming babies when bystanders are watching and reacting
- Anthropology
Peking Man fossils show their age
Scientists have pushed back the age of Peking Man, raising questions about whether Homo erectus trekked to eastern Asia in two separate migrations.
- Chemistry
Light could heal materials
Scientists have created a new material that repairs itself when exposed to ultraviolet light.
- Planetary Science
Seeing the future hot spells
Satellite data could help scientists better predict killer heat waves, such as the one that hit Europe in 2003.
- Earth
Goo gives eels just the right buoyancy
Scientists survey the specific gravity of 25 marine critters.
- Earth
Pushing back an oxygen-rich atmosphere
Hematite crystals in Australian rocks hint that Earth’s atmosphere was oxygenated earlier than previously thought.
- Health & Medicine
Gradual treatment of peanut allergies shows promise
A slow and incremental introduction of peanuts into the diet helps some children overcome an allergy to the food, but it takes time and close supervision.
- Health & Medicine
MicroRNAs provide telltale signature of organ rejection
Levels of microRNAs in the blood and tissue distinguish rejected transplants from healthy tissue.
- Plants
Plants reveal pollen-luring secrets
Scientists finally pin down the proteins one plant uses to lure pollen tubes to its plant ovaries.
- Physics
Evidence mounts for an exotic supersolid
Rubidium atoms simultaneously act like a solid and a superfluid.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine could protect against virus that causes birth defects
An experimental vaccine against cytomegalovirus has the ability to prevent infection half the time it’s administered, suggesting the vaccine might prevent birth defects the virus can cause.
- Psychology
Feelings, universal musical feelings
Africans who spurn all things Western provide evidence that people everywhere recognize expressions of happiness, sadness and fear in music. Listen to some of the audio samples the study used.
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- Health & Medicine
How deep brain stimulation works for Parkinson’s
New studies in rodents show that methods that are less invasive than deep brain stimulation may help people with Parkinson's disease regain movement.
- Space
Brines on Mars
Unusually high concentration of perchlorate salts found in Martian soil suggests that the Red Planet may harbor shallow, extremely briny oceans just below its surface. The existence of these brines may explain a host of puzzles on Mars.
- Life
Dissing a loaded label for some unicellular life
Prominent biologist calls ‘prokaryote’ outdated term.
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Science Past for April 11, 2009
Science Past | from the issue of April 11, 1959 Scientists urged to dig for specimens of Peking Man — Give up the loss of the bones of ancient Peking Man, one of man’s earliest ancestors, as a “perfect crime,” and start digging for new specimens of this Pleistocene forebear. This is the advice to […]
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The Empathy Gap: Building Bridges to the Good Life and the Good Society by J.D. Trout
This book argues that empathy and rationality are key to good personal and political decisions. Viking, 2009, 320 p., $25.95. THE EMPATHY GAP: BUILDING BRIDGES TO THE GOOD LIFE AND THE GOOD SOCIETY BY J.D. TROUT
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Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life by Martha Lampland and Susan Leigh Star, eds.
Standards are a fact of life, from cradle to coffin size. Cornell Univ., 2009, 244 p., $22.95. Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life by Martha Lampland and Susan Leigh Star, eds.
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Global Health Narratives: A Reader for Youth by Emily Mendenhall, ed.
Short stories for youngsters reveal worldwide public health problems. Univ. of New Mexico, 2009, 238 p., $21.95. GLOBAL HEALTH NARRATIVES: A READER FOR YOUTH BY EMILY MENDENHALL, ED.
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Book Review: Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities by Ian Stewart
Review by Elizabeth Quill.
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Life in Space: Astrobiology for Everyone by Lucas John Mix
How the search for extraterrestrial life helps us understand Earth. Harvard Univ., 2009, 344 p., $29.95. Life in Space: Astrobiology for Everyone by Lucas John Mix
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Bracing for global climate change is a local challenge
Weather and climate extremes have been affecting people around the world, from recent droughts in China and Australia to strong storms in Asia to a cold wave in large parts of Europe and the United States — all within a month of the World Meteorological Organization reporting 2008 would likely rank among the 10 warmest […]
- Astronomy
Planck by Planck
The launch of the European Space Agency’s Planck mission, set for late April or early May, will put into orbit a new tool —the microwave equivalent of polarized sunglasses — that may offer a view of the dawn of time.
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Building Beauty
Deconstructing flowers yields the secrets of petals, scents and hue.
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Urban heat
Cities sizzle as more people move in.
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Science Future for April 11, 2009
April 22–26 Annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology to be held in Atlanta. See www.saa.org April 29 Psychologist Daniel Levitin and Grammy Award–winner Rosanne Cash speak at What Is Music to Your Ears? The Science of Hearing in New York City. See www.nyas.org June 1–3 The e-Biosphere 09 International Conference on Biodiversity Informatics […]
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Before Sudoku: The World of Magic Squares by Seymour S. Block and Santiago A. Tavares
Fascination with sudoku puzzles is not new. Oxford Univ., 2009, 239 p., $14.95. Before Sudoku: The World of Magic Squares by Seymour S. Block and Santiago A. Tavares
