DELETED SCENES BLOG
The Higgs boson deserves
all the hype it has received
— and then some. Read
about the particle’s hidden
talents in “Higgs hysteria.”
Two new studies support the idea that an odd
microbe cannot swap
arsenic for phosphorus.
Read “Arsenic-based life
gets even more toxic.”
Science Past | FROM THE ISSUE OF AUGUST 11, 1962
ONE-WAY SPACE MISSION TO THE MOON POSSIBLE — The
feasibility, from a technical standpoint, of sending a man
on a one-way mission to the moon with-
out the propulsion to bring him back to
earth was explored by two Bell Aerosys-
tems Company scientists. John M. Cord,
project engineer in Aerospace Prelimi-
nary Design, and Leonard M . Seale, chief
of the Human Factors Section, at
Textron’s Bell Aerosystems Company, Buffalo, N. Y.,
emphasized that they do not advocate such a mission
although they believe it will be possible to provide a means
of returning the lunar explorer or explorers to earth at
some later date.… In fact, they asserted, the man can be
kept alive indefinitely to do valuable scientific work.
Science Future
August 23
Christof Koch discusses his
book Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist
at the Aspen Brain Forum in
Colorado. See bit.ly/SFkoch
LIFE
Scientists electronically
tag ants (below) to watch
the insects’ foraging strategies. Read “Skinny searchers keep fat ants full.”
August 31
Nominations due for induction
into the Space Technology Hall
of Fame. See bit.ly/SFfame
September 3
Last day of Summer of
Irresponsible Science at the
Maryland Science Center.
See bit.ly/SFSIS
First | FOSSILS IN FLAGRANTE
Nine preserved pairs of turtles from 47 million years ago
have revealed the first fossil snapshots of vertebrate sex.
Dug up at a fossil-rich pit near Messel, Germany, the lov-
ers were poisoned in the toxic depths of a volcanic lake,
researchers from Germany and Switzerland report online
June 20 in Biology Letters. The Allaeochelys crassesculpta
couples (one pair shown) probably began mating in clean
surface waters, the researchers say, but froze their posi-
tion during mating and sank
into a toxic layer, challeng-
ing the idea that sips from
the lake’s surface waters
killed other creatures previ-
ously unearthed at the site.
An estimate of the total biomass of adult humans on the planet ;nds
that North America has just 6 percent of the world’s population yet is
responsible for 34 percent of global obesity tonnage.
SOURCE: S.C. WALPOLE ET AL/BMC PUBLIC HEALTH 2012
Science Stats | FAT ADDED UP
Total human
biomass in
2005
Obesity tonnage worldwide
Portion
from being
overweight
Portion
from being
obese
287
million
metric tons
15
million
metric tons
3. 5
million
metric tons
=
=
=
2. 3
million tons
1. 2
million tons
ATOM & COSMOS
A new lithium source won’t
help researchers find more
of it. See “Black hole theory
deepens lithium crisis.”
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: FLIBUSTIER/ISTOCKPHOTO; COURTESY OF NIGEL FRANKS; STEPHEN EG TS; SENCKENBERG NATURMUSEUM FRANKFUR T
N. America’s share of global obesity biomass
All other countries
