domingo, 3 de julio de 2011

Science review


The Genkai Nuclear Power Station in Genkai, Saga Prefecture.
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
The Genkai Nuclear Power Station in Genkai, Saga Prefecture.
Yasushi Furukawa of Saga Prefecture must decide whether to support a request by Prime Minister Naoto Kan to restart two reactors at a local nuclear plant.
Oil swirled in a flooded gravel pit in Lockwood, Mont. after an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured.

Ruptured Pipeline Spills Oil Into Yellowstone River

An ExxonMobil pipeline running under the Yellowstone River in south central Montana ruptured late Friday, spilling crude oil into the river and forcing evacuations.
NOVELTIES

Beyond the Breathalyzer: Seeking Telltale Signs of Disease

Scientists are building electronic and chemical sniffers that analyze breath to detect problems ranging from kidney disease to cancer.

Court Won’t Intervene in Fate of Nuclear Dump

An appeals court cautioned that it would reconsider if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission refused to act.
Part of the Coney Island Boardwalk, originally built with wood from the Amazon rain forest, is now concrete. More changes are planned.

A Fight Over Keeping Boards in the Boardwalk

The city’s efforts to stop using endangered tropical hardwoods as it replaces the Coney Island Boardwalk’s planks raise aesthetic, pragmatic and linguistic issues.
Science Times: June 28, 2011
Viktor Koen
New noseless saddles can save cyclists from soreness and numbness in the genital region, but their popularity is lagging.
MUSIC NUMBER A museum piece will show the interplay of math and music.

One Math Museum, Many Variables

Glen Whitney’s museum in New York aims to shape cultural attitudes and dispel the bad rap that most people give math.
ON VIEW
EVOLUTION'S NEW BEAT Baba Brinkman's show is open for a summer-long run at the SoHo Playhouse in Manhattan.

Paying Homage to Darwin in an Unconventional Format: Rap

A new play serves as a lecture on Darwin and natural selection disguised as a rant on the history of rap, gangs and murder in Chicago, and much more.
BEHAVIORAL CLUES Hormone levels in caribou scat point to another culprit in the oil sands area of Alberta.

Greatest Threat to Caribou Herd in Canada Isn’t From Wolves

By looking at hormone levels in caribou scat, scientists found that when humans were most active in an area, caribou nutrition was poorest and psychological stress highest.

Magnetic Field Sensed by Gene, Study Shows

A researcher suggests that humans, like butterflies and other animals, can sense the earth’s magnetic field and use it to navigate.
Health
BEGONE Dr. William P. Taylor, in 1987 in Sudan, examined a cow for rinderpest. The United Nations is announcing this week that the disease has been wiped off the face of the earth.

Rinderpest, Scourge of Cattle, Is Vanquished

The disease, a killer of livestock in much of the world, becomes only the second, after smallpox, to be eradicated.

Concerns About Costs Rise With Hospices’ Use

Medicare’s bill for end-of-life care quadrupled from 2000 to 2009, and claims of misuse mounted.
More News
Deborah Violette, a property manager, takes dog waste seriously.

Tracing Unscooped Dog Waste Back to the Culprit

Canine DNA is now being used to identify the culprits who fail to clean up after their pets.
The city is seeking to reactivate a waste transfer station on the East River at 91st Street, prompting protests from residents on the Upper East Side.

In Fight Against Trash Station, Upper East Side Cites Injustice

A review of census tracts within roughly a half-mile of the existing waste transfer stations confirms that most of them are in moderate- to extremely low-income neighborhoods.
More Multimedia

VIDEO: Nora Volkow

An interview with the neuroscientist in charge of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who also happens to be the great-granddaughter of Leon Trotsky.

INTERACTIVE FEATURE: What Makes Music Expressive?

What makes music expressive? Quiz yourself based on new research.

SLIDE SHOW: Readers’ Photos: A Family’s Best Friend?

Photos and stories of pets that were viewed differently by family members.

Rock-Paper-Scissors: You vs. the Computer

Test your strategy against the computer in this rock-paper-scissors game illustrating basic artificial intelligence.
The northern spotted owl was listed as threatened in 1990.

Plan Issued to Save Northern Spotted Owl

Twenty years after the northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species, the federal government offered a plan to prevent the bird from going extinct.
Science Columns
Q & A

The Yawning Gap

There is growing evidence linking excessive yawning to temperature imbalances, and cases of yawning during sleep have been documented.
OBSERVATORY
An illustration of a Jurassic Sauropod.

Cold-Blooded Dinosaurs As Warm as Humans

Testing the chemical composition of dinosaur teeth, researchers found that some sauropods were warmer than modern crocodiles and alligators.
OBSERVATORY
A brood of blue-footed boobies on Isla Isabel, Mexico.

Effects of Early Bullying Don’t Last in Birds

A new study of blue-footed boobies suggests that bullying in childhood does not affect the aggression levels of adult birds.
OBSERVATORY
Saturn's sixth moon, Enceladus, backlighted by the sun, is spewing plumes of water ice.

Saturn Moon’s Surface May Conceal Salty Ocean

A new analysis of particles ejected from Saturn’s moon Enceladus suggests there is a salt-water ocean feeding its geyserlike plumes.
Podcast: Science Times
Science Times Podcast
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This week: The end of a deadly disease, dispelling myths about math, and the truth about sunscreen.
Health Columns
PERSONAL HEALTH

Along the Spine, Women Buckle at Breaking Points

Vertebral fractures affect a quarter of postmenopausal women and account for half of the 1.5 million fractures due to bone loss each year in the United States.
REALLY?

Really? The Claim: Exercising on an Empty Stomach Burns More Fat

While it seems to make sense, research shows that exercising in this way doesn’t offer any benefit and may even work against you.
Opinion
DOT EARTH BLOG

Time for a Checkup

A pause to step back and sift for ways to foster progress that fits on a finite planet.
WORDPLAY BLOG

Numberplay: The Mad Veterinarian

Joshua Zucker with an adventure in mammal-mixing madness.

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