Say What?
Gravitational lens \grah-vih-TAY-shun-al
LENZ\ n. Anything that has a gravitational
pull — stars, galaxies, and even dark
matter — can bend light passing by,
distorting the image of the light’s source
that is seen on Earth. Scientists can use
this distortion to look for objects that would
be too dim to see otherwise by picking
out anomalies in deflected light. An international team of researchers
noticed just such a disturbance in the bright halo (shown) created by the
supermassive elliptical galaxy JVAS B1938+666 as it warps the view
of a more distant galaxy. Further investigation led to the discovery of a
satellite dwarf galaxy located nearly 10 billion light-years from Earth, the
researchers report in the Jan. 19 Nature. — Allison Bohac
SN Online
www.sciencenews.org
ON THE SCENE BLOG
Science can't hear back
in time. Read more in
"Archaeoacoustics: Tantalizing, but fantastical."
GENES & CELLS
An eye protein helps mice
and people sense vibrations.
See "Seeing, feeling have
something in common."
Science Past | FROM THE ISSUE OF MARCH 10, 1962
KENNEDY URGES BETTER PAY — President John F.
Kennedy’s proposal to raise the pay scale for top Govern-
ment employees should help stem the flow of scientists
and engineers now leaving public service
for much higher pay in industry.... The
top Government salary under most scales
is $18,500 a year. Many top positions are
not filled because prospective employees
would not consider less than $25,000. A
comparison of salaries of Government
employees and industry employees is remarkable, if not
appalling. GS- 16 workers, for example, receive between
$15,200 and $16,200 while equivalent workers in industry
receive at least $20,000 with a median of $25,900.
Introducing
A viney, wild cousin of the potato has become the only
species named for Jeanne Baret, the first woman known
to travel around the Earth and possibly the only one to do
so illicitly, disguised as a male assistant to a botanist. Sailing in 1766 with explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville’s
crew, Baret endured about two years of nautical life,
including foul water and occasional rat dinners. When the
ailing botanist, Philibert Commerson, was too ill to work,
she collected specimens herself.
More than 70 species are named
in Commerson’s honor, and on
January 3 in PhytoKeys, Eric Tepe
of the University of Utah and his
colleagues christened Solanum
Science Future
March 30–31
Meet astronaut Richard
Linnehan and Nobel winners
at the Texas A&M Physics and
Engineering Festival in College
Station. See bit.ly/SNtamu
March 31
See glowing creatures at a
bioluminescence exhibit at the
American Museum of Natural
History in New York City. Learn
more at bit.ly/SNbiolum
Alaska
LIFE
Early fliers may have
had dark feathers. Read
"Archaeopteryx wore black."
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: D. LAGAT TUTA/W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY; COURTESY OF HAGEN WENDE AND CARMEN BIRCHMEIER; E. J. TEPE ET AL/PHYTOKE YS 2012
ATOM & COSMOS
Particles reveal the stuff
of space in "Spacecraft
captures dust from interstellar wind."
A new map of U.S. plant hardiness zones shifts much of the country
about half a zone warmer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the
shift re;ects not only any climate warming that has occurred but also
better mapping methods and accuracy. Find your zone by zip code at
planthardiness.ars.usda.gov SOURCE: U.S. DEPAR TMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Science Stats | PLANT ZONES SHIF T
Plant hardiness zones (based on minimum temperatures)
Hawaii
Puerto Rico
Temp. °F
−60 – −50
−50 – −40
−40 – − 30
− 30 – − 20
− 20 – − 10
− 10 – 0
0– 10
10 – 20
20 – 30
30 – 40
40 – 50
50 – 60
60 – 70
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