Say What?
wrinklon \REENK-lawn\ n. The zone between
two merging wrinkles. A wrinklon looks like
a parabola; it’s the U within the wishbone
created by the combining wrinkles (shown
at left). An international team led by Pascal
Damman of the University of Mons in Belgium
recently showed that, for a sheet fixed at one
end and wrinkled from the other, researchers can describe the pattern of
ripples in the sheet by imagining it as made of U-shaped building blocks
stacked together, instead of dealing with the wicked math. The wrinklon
approach works on a wide range of scales, from nanometers to meters, the
team claims in the June 2 Physical Review Letters. The approach may help
scientists understand wrinkling in techie stuff, like tiny graphene sheets.
ATOM & COSMOS
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft
enters orbit around the
asteroid Vesta. Read
“Dawn on Vesta.”
Science Past | FROM THE ISSUE OF AUGUST 12, 1961
“CLIMBERS” PRONE TO ILLNESS — “Nonhazardous” occupations can be dangerous for men who work their way up.
Eighty-four out of 139 young men between the ages of
22 and 32 who had attained managerial
positions showed more illness than
55 co-workers who stepped into the same
kind of job right out of college.... The men
who had worked their way up displayed
both acute and chronic symptoms, includ-
ing signs indicating eventual high blood
pressure and hardening of the arteries.... The men who
were sick more often ... had grown up in modest to sub-
standard neighborhoods in low-income families where the
fathers generally had a grammar-school education or less.
As a result their climb up the ladder of success was full of
challenges, threats, demands and other factors of a domes-
tic and financial nature ... unfamiliar to them.
Science Future
MOLECULES
Tasting fat gives rats the
munchies. See “Fat stimulates binge eating.”
August 17 – 21
Explore antique tractors and
other equipment at Columbus,
Ohio’s Center of Science and
Industry. Go to www.cosi.org
August 30
Launch into the sun’s cosmic
neighborhood in a show at New
York City’s Hayden Planetarium.
See bit.ly/SNsolarnbhd
August 31
In Portland, learn about the
technology behind iPhone
games. Ages 21 and up. Go
to www.omsi.edu/afterdark
GENES & CELLS
Researchers debate genes’
role in autism disorders.
See “Environment blamed
for autism.”
Rosacea patients suffer professional hurdles as well as skin
in;ammation and redness, a National Rosacea Society survey
found. More than 16 million people in the United States have
the chronic condition, the society estimates.
Science Stats | BLUSHING BUSINESSPEOPLE
Severe rosacea and reported work problems
Staring
Rude comments
BODY & BRAIN
Armor-clad knights use
about twice as much energy
to move as non-armored
fighters. Read this tale and
others in “News in Brief:
Body & Brain.”
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COUR TESY OF PASCAL DAMMAN AND MIGUEL PINEIRUA/ESPCI, PARIS; NASA; HZDR; JANEL KILE Y
The (-est)
The world record for the strongest man-made magnet was
set on June 22 by scientists in Germany. The new record
of 91.4 Tesla, which lasted for a couple of milliseconds, tops
the previous record of about 89 Tesla.
Scientists created the magnetic field by
passing current through copper coils
(shown). To prevent the field from tearing the magnet itself apart, researchers
at the Dresden High Magnetic Field
Laboratory wrapped the copper in the
same kind of fiber used to make bulletproof vests. The resulting electromagnet,
more than 1,800 times stronger than a
typical fridge magnet, will be used to test
the properties of new materials including superconductors.
