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Weekly Highlights #12 - recent Scienceline posts

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Just a quick look at the latest posts and articles on Scienceline, website run by the NYU SHERP students - a site you should keep an eye on, always busier in Fall when two generations overlap:

Pumpkins of supernatural size: Growing pumpkins in which Cinderella could have ridden to the ball by Kelly Slivka:

It’s not an exact science. In fact, some might argue it’s not exactly science. But for years a sect of gourd aficionados has dedicated itself to growing absurdly enormous pumpkins...


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Talk to me, with your eyes:Eye tracking technology allows ALS sufferers to express creativity by Allison T. McCann:

When Los Angeles graffiti artist Tony Quan, otherwise known as Tempt1, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he lost all muscle function in his body – except in his eyes. His brain was fully functioning, but he could not speak nor move a limb. His ideas were as abundant as ever, but he was an artist without any form of expression...

Wandering whales, millipede mating, and sightseeing sauropods: Our favorites from the week by Emma Bryce, Jonathan Chang and Justine Hausheer:

Each week, the Scienceline staff combs through the web to find the smartest, coolest, and newest stuff for you to read. See what we’ve got this week!...

Weighing in on obesity: Why doctors often fail to address weight issues with patients by Susan E. Matthews:

When Dr. Laurie Lindor speaks to her patients about obesity, she still recalls an editorial published over two decades ago in the medical newspaper for her Minnesota clinic. The letter’s author explained how she had felt so embarrassed to be told she was overweight at a checkup that she vowed not to return to a doctor’s office until she had dropped the necessary pounds. A decade later, still overweight but faithful to her vow, the woman was forced to the doctor by vaginal bleeding. The diagnosis was terminal cervical cancer...

Why do we hate the sound of nails on a chalkboard? The anatomy of an awful sound by Rose Eveleth:

If you don’t want to actually listen to the sound, think about nails on a chalkboard for a minute. Did you get the shivers? But why? Why do we hate that sound that much?...

Frightened of nuclear radiation? These movies won’t help. Scienceline presents a roundup of the best (and worst) nuclear horror flicks by Miriam Kramer:

Halloween is a time for candy, trick-or-treating, and hyperbolic stories of nuclear radiation-caused mutations. Surprised about that last one? You probably shouldn’t be. Ever since the nuclear bomb sparked the imaginations and scared the bejesus out of people all over the world, people who make horror movies have been exploiting that fear...

Mineral Monday: Salt - Warding off evil spirits and bacteria for millennia by Mary Beth Griggs:

Happy Halloween! In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, we’re going to be talking about one of the most magical minerals of all: salt...

Climate Mash 2011: Six years after Bobby Pickett wrote "Climate Mash," the world's environmental challenges are still frightening by Ashley Taylor:

The song that I most associate with Halloween is “Monster Mash,” the 1962, three-time Billboard hit by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers. Pickett sings in his deep voice as his backup girls do the werewolf, “wa-ooh, wa-ooh.” In 2005, two years before his own death, Pickett rewrote the song to ridicule the “zombies and vampires of global climate change.” “Climate Mash” is clever both in lyrics, by Pickett, and animation, by HorseBack Salad Animation...

There must be something in the water: More than just H2O comes out of your kitchen tap by Benjamin Plackett:

Well, I hate to use a cliché but it seems there might be something in the water. In most big cities, the levels of estrogens in tap water are higher than elsewhere. Traces of the female contraceptive pill are often blamed as the culprit...

Natural gas expands: Utilities retire coal-fired power plants in favor of a controversial alternative by Ashley Taylor:

Even in the heart of coal country, utilities are shifting away from coal-powered electricity and toward what environmentalists and climate scientists regard as a problematic substitute: natural gas...