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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: science

science stories: 170 news summaries

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Science Smackdowns Aid Search for 'Bill Gates 2.0'

Popularity of math, science competitions shoots off the charts

May 19, 08 5:57 PM CDT
(Newser) - With the days when the space program inspired American students to embrace science and math a distant memory, the US is counting on competition among schoolkids to return the country as a whole to a leading role, the Christian Science Monitor reports. High-level science fairs and math bowls are potential... More »

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education • science • National Science Foundation • mathematics • spelling • spelling bee • International Science and Engineering Fair

Einstein Called Faith 'Childish Superstition'

1954 letter, headed for auction, sheds new light on scientist's view

May 13, 08 3:22 PM CDT
(Newser) - A relatively unknown letter by Albert Einstein, offered at auction Thursday in London, offers new details on the scientist's tangled relationship with religion, the Guardian reports. While believers often consider Einstein a scientist who maintained his religious faith, the 1954 letter calls the Bible "primitive legends," and "... More »

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science • religion • Judaism • auction • Albert Einstein

Baby Birds' Babbling Suggests Intricate Brain

How our feathered friends learn, play back song may hold answers for human speech

May 5, 08 4:54 PM CDT
(Newser) - Being bird-brained might not be much of an insult: New MIT research paints a more intricate portrait of how songbirds learn to sing, with one part of the brain used for learning and another for singing itself. Rather than maturing from babbling to birdsong, the independent but overlapping pathways work... More »

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science • birds • brain • neuroscience • language • science experiment • speech

Cougar's Long Trek to Chicago May Tell Tale

Cat likely from SD may yield clues about human overpopulation

May 1, 08 11:03 AM CDT
(Newser) - A cougar shot April 14 in Chicago was spotted earlier in Wisconsin, DNA tests show, suggesting an epic trek. Now, scientists are eager to study the animal, hoping to learn more about how and why it migrated; they aim to pin down its ancestry in an effort to better understand... More »

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Wisconsin • Chicago • science • migration • South Dakota • biology • overpopulation • human population • cougar

Collosal Squid Has World's Biggest Eyes

They're the size of dinner plates, 'largest ever recorded'

Apr 30, 08 7:27 PM CDT
(Newser) - With eyes bigger than dinner plates and orange-sized lenses, a colossal squid being dissected by New Zealand scientists boasts the biggest peepers of any animal—and larger relatives could lurk in the deep, the Telegraph reports. It's "certainly not the largest specimen out there," said one marine biologist,... More »

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science • giant squid • history • marine biology

 Absinthe's Secret Revealed 

Mind-altering effect is really just the booze talking

Apr 30, 08 3:11 PM CDT
(Newser) - Absinthe's "Green Fairy,” which spurred the likes of van Gogh and Picasso to creative heights, may have been more of a drunken sprite than psychedelic pixie. A study of century-old bottles of the green liqueur revealed that its potency most likely stems from its 70% alcohol content—making... More »

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alcohol • Germany • France • science • chemistry • liquor • absinthe

PETA Offering $1M Prize for Test Tube Meat

Animal-rights group nearly splinters over research reward

Apr 21, 08 10:21 AM CDT
(Newser) - PETA is offering a $1 million reward to the first researchers who can figure out a commercially viable artificial meat-production system, the New York Times reports. Scientists have been working on in vitro meat for years, hoping to grow edible tissue cultures that could replace slaughtered livestock. But there was... More »

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food • science • meat • PETA • in vitro meat

 New Notes in Earth's Hum 

Scientists discover more complex oscillations in planetary symphony

Apr 17, 08 7:45 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a new dimension to the sub-aural sound emanating from our planet’s crust, dubbed “Earth’s hum.” Researchers have known about the hum, detectable only by seismometers, for a decade, though its ultimate cause is unclear. They expected to find hidden oscillations, but the amplitude... More »

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science • Earth • sound • Earth's interior • scientific research

Darwin's Papers Now Online

Once-private drafts, notes and even recipes of evolutionary scientist are free to public

Apr 17, 08 4:48 PM CDT
(Newser) - A vast collection of the papers of Charles Darwin is now online, providing public access to volumes once restricted to Cambridge scholars, the BBC reports. 20,000 items are available, including the first draft of his seminal book on evolution, travel notes and personal pieces such as family recipes, Reuters... More »

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evolution • science • research • nature • Charles Darwin • biology • natural selection

obituary

'Father of Chaos Theory'
Dead at 90

Edward Lorenz came up with concept of 'butterfly effect'

Apr 17, 08 10:13 AM CDT
(Newser) - The MIT scientist whose pioneering of chaos theory revolutionized science, has died at the age of 90, MIT News reports. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz came up with the concept of chaos theory after meticulously analyzing weather data and discovering microscopic differences could have huge effects, leading to his paper "Predictability:... More »

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science • MIT • meteorology • scientific discoveries • Edward Lorenz

 Ex-Soviet Monkeys
 Survive 15-Year Limbo

Breakaway republic can barely support survivors from better times

Apr 12, 08 5:50 PM CDT
(Newser) - Traumatized monkeys once the subjects of Soviet experiments are odd remnants of a more prosperous time in Abkhazia, an area of Georgia that calls itself independent, the Los Angeles Times reports. The area was crippled in its effort to break away from Georgia, but the 286 primates living in a... More »

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science • Soviet Union • Georgia • independence • research • USSR • monkey • former Soviet state

New Drug Protects Body From Radiation

Promising treatment has potential medical, military applications

Apr 11, 08 2:15 PM CDT
(Newser) - A promising new drug that protects animals from damaging radiation is ready for clinical trials in humans, the BBC reports. The drug interferes with the protein that ordinarily causes cell suicide in the presence of radiation, meaning it could be useful in treating cancer patients undergoing radiation as well as... More »

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cancer • medicine • medical breakthrough • science • cancer treatment • radiation • dirty bomb • apoptosis

 Elephant Bubble Plans Popped 

Outcry bursts science center's plans to surround elephant with soap bubble

Mar 15, 08 6:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - A California science center has ditched plans to surround an elephant with a giant soap bubble, reports the LA Times, after a thousand outraged emailers protested the plan and zoo professionals blasted it as a "Vegas-style sideshow."  A "bubble artist" had planned to break a world... More »

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science • art • animal cruelty • animal rights • elephant

Laws of Physics
May Need an Overhaul

Scientists detect gravity-defying behavior of spacecrafts

Mar 14, 08 6:04 PM CDT
(Newser) - The laws of physics just might be broken. Scientists have detected gravity-defying behavior from spacecrafts flung around the Earth, the Economist reports. Five different spacecrafts picked up speed at a pace deviating,ever so slightly, from the laws created by Newton and Einstein. After laborious calculations, astronomers have created... More »

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astronomy • science • Galileo • gravity • Albert Einstein • spacecraft • Jet Propulsion Laboratory • John Anderson

 Panel: US Math System 'Broken' 

Group, worried about future competitive disadvantage, advises focus on basics

Mar 13, 08 1:38 PM CDT
(Newser) - A presidential panel today called US math education “broken” and demanded greater focus on key skills ranging from preschool to middle school, the Washington Post reports. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel responded to concerns that Americans are growing less competitive in the realm, and pointed the way to better... More »

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education • science • global economy • student • elementary school • engineering • preschool • mathematics • George W. Bush • middle school • National Mathematics Advisory Panel • algebra

Digital Tutors May Edge Out
Real Thing

Virtual educators don't get frustrated and kids aren't afraid of errors

Feb 22, 08 3:33 AM CST
(Newser) - The best education available these days may be a virtual one, scientists are finding. Today´s digital educators can teach anything from social to language skills—and don't get tired, bored or irritable, LiveScience reports. The programs are a perfect match for autistic kids, who often find face-to-face interactions overwhelming. More »

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education • autism • science • virtual reality • virtual teacher

Bizarre Antarctic Sea Life Found

New species discovered just as they're threatened by global warming

Feb 20, 08 10:51 AM CST
(Newser) - A host of bizarre giant creatures lurk in the little-known waters of Antarctica, the Daily Telegraph reports. Thousands of specimens have been gathered by a mission to study Antarctic marine life before it is wiped out—including giant sea spiders the size of dinner plates, huge sea worms, and mammoth... More »

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global warming • science • ocean • Antarctica • marine life

Scientists Near Invisibility Cloak for Sound

Special material
makes acoustic
waves take a detour

Feb 16, 08 12:30 PM CST
(Newser) - Researchers are making progress on something that sounds right out of the pages of Harry Potter—a sort of invisibility cloak for sound. A team of scientists in Spain is trying to turn theory into reality by creating a cloak that causes sound waves to slip around an object, the ... More »

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science • sound • scientific discoveries • invisibility

Century Mark Within Reach
for Many

Healthy habits boost chances of living to
100, even with illness

Feb 12, 08 9:50 AM CST
(Newser) - Even people with heart disease or diabetes can hit the century mark if they take care of themselves, two new studies say. The trick for living to 100 is managing illness well enough to stay independent. "It's kind of a threesome: get more years, better years, and better function,... More »

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elderly • Boston • science • lifestyle • healthy habits • Harvard • longevity • health research

Baby Blues Come From Single Ancestor

A long-ago genetic mutation diluted brown eyes, scientists say

Jan 31, 08 7:21 PM CST
(Newser) - All blue-eyed people have a single, shared ancestor, scientists say. And all those baby blues are the result of a genetic mutation that occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, LiveScience reports. Before that, everyone had brown eyes. The mutation limits the effects of the gene that produces... More »

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genetics • science • genetic mutation • Denmark • human evolution • eyes

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