Monthly Archives: September 2003

my poodle, my self

Have you ever noticed how some people look eerily like their dogs and vice versa? Now there’s genetic evidence to account for some of those similarities. Researchers from the Institute for Genomic Research, working with J. Craig Venter and others … Continue reading

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our cannibal galaxy

Astronomers from the University of Massachusetts and the University of Virginia announced last week that they have proof that the Milky Way is a cannibal, gobbling up the tiny Sagittarius galaxy. The researchers have mapped the full extent of Sagittarius … Continue reading

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taste for fish floundered in stone age

Stone-age Brits quickly gave up eating fish when meat and grains became easily available, researchers report in the Sept. 25 Nature. Archeologist Michael P. Richards of the University of Bradford, UK, and his colleagues analyzed human bones from coastal and … Continue reading

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using your brain to get around

Boston can be a confusing place to drive, so thank goodness you’ve got all sorts of different cells in your brain to help you navigate your way. In a study published in the Sept. 11 Nature, Michael J. Kahana of … Continue reading

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invasion of the land plants

In 1066, the Norman invasion; in 1588, the Spanish Armada. Invasion dates: What would history books and trivia games be without them? And now perhaps a new date can be added to the annals: 470,000,000 BC, the date plants invaded … Continue reading

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monkeys like things fair and square

Just like humans, capuchin monkeys have been found to have a sense of fairness, say researchers from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University in Atlanta. In their study, published in the Sept. 18 Nature, Sarah Brosnan and … Continue reading

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goodbye, galileo

NASA has set Galileo, the spacecraft that has been studying Jupiter and its moons since 1995, on a collision course with the planet, the crash to occur this Sunday. The craft, which is running low on fuel, is being directed … Continue reading

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attack of the dust bunnies from space

There’s a major influx of stardust in our solar system and it’s coming in at a rate three times faster than it did six years ago — and could triple again by 2013, according to measurements taken by the spacecraft, … Continue reading

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deep bass note from deep black hole

Astronomers reported last week that black holes can sing bass — in a manner of speaking. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, they have detected the deepest note in the universe, a B-flat being emitted by a massive black hole in … Continue reading

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can older adults take a joke?

Canadian researchers report in the September issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society that senior citizens can still enjoy a good joke — as long as it’s not too complicated. Prathiba Shammi and Donald Stuss, psychologists at the … Continue reading

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