Monthly Archives: May 2003

Forget outer space: Let’s journey to the center of the Earth, where “fascinating scientific issues are waiting to be investigated,” says Cal Tech geophysicist David Stevenson. In the May 15 Nature, he proposes a radical scheme to blast a crack … Continue reading →

Neptune may have seasons, say astronomers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, after studying images of the icy, far-off planet taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The images — taken over a six-year period … Continue reading →

When times are tough, the strongest women bear more sons, reported British researchers in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society last week. University of London evolutionary anthropologists Mhairi Gibson and Ruth Mace studied mothers in a rural Ethiopian community … Continue reading →

Eminem may be more dangerous than you know. Songs with violent lyrics increase violent thoughts and feelings, according to a study published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The findings contradict the notion that … Continue reading →

Perhaps it’s not the fountain of youth just yet, but a team of neuroscientists has found a way to reverse an age-related change in really old monkeys. Visual function is known to decline with age: the elderly just don’t do … Continue reading →

It‘s said that if you give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time, they’ll eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. Six monkeys, one computer, and one month will give you rather … Continue reading →

A mysterious new species of jellyfish has been found in the cold, deep, dark water of the Pacific Ocean. Marine biologists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California have discovered a jellyfish species they call granrojo (Spanish for … Continue reading →

How do babies get that super soft skin? According to researchers at the Skin Sciences Institute of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, it may be due to vernix, the greasy, white substance made of fats, proteins, and water that coats … Continue reading →

It’s long been thought that fish don’t feel pain, but in a study released last week by the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science, researchers say they have conclusive proof that they do. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh … Continue reading →

Researchers have sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes anthrax, reports the May 1 Nature. Anthrax is found naturally in farm animals and other mammals, and gained notoriety when it was maliciously used to kill people through the US … Continue reading →