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It's Sensitive. Really
By WILLIAM J. BROAD, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
For centuries, the tusk of the narwhal has fascinated and baffled.
Narwhal tusks, up to nine feet long, were sold as unicorn horns in ages past, often for many times their weight in gold since they were said to possess magic powers. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth received a tusk valued at £10,000 - the cost of a castle. Austrian lore holds that Kaiser Karl the Fifth paid off a large national debt with two tusks. In Vienna, the Hapsburgs had one made into a scepter heavy with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.
Scientists have long tried to explain why a stocky whale that lives in arctic waters, feeding on cod and other creatures that flourish amid the pack ice, should wield such a long tusk. The theories about how the narwhal uses the tusk have included breaking ice, spearing fish, piercing ships, transmitting sound, shedding excess body heat, poking the seabed for food, wooing females, defending baby narwhals and establishing dominance in social hierarchies.
But a team of scientists from Harvard and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has now made a startling discovery: the tusk, it turns out, forms a sensory organ of exceptional size and sensitivity, making the living appendage one of the planet's most remarkable, and one that in some ways outdoes its own mythology.
( Read More )
The Consumer: Women Dress for Comfort in the Heat of the Night
By MARY DUENWALD, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
As fashion trends go, hot flash pajamas are not glamorous. But they stand a chance of holding on for more than one brief season. At least five brands have sprung up in the past five years and, perhaps as a result of the expanding ranks of women turning 50, sales are rising fast.
( Read More )
Beating Malaria Means Understanding Mosquitoes
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
In Africa, 20 percent of the children get 80 percent of the bites from malarial mosquitoes, and an understanding of this could be central to controlling the deadly disease.
Researchers have developed a mathematical model that describes the complex relationship between the proportion of people who are infected with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria, and the rate at which people are bitten by the mosquitoes that carry it.
Some people are bitten more than others because they live where mosquitoes are more common or because the mosquitoes, for various reasons, find them more attractive.
( Read More )
Vital Signs: Having a Baby: Risk and Reality in V-Births and C-Sections
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
Elective Caesarean sections have become more common in recent years, in part because many women and doctors believe that vaginal birth is a major risk factor for urinary incontinence.
But a new study published in the December issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology has found no support for this belief.
( Read More )
By WILLIAM J. BROAD, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
For centuries, the tusk of the narwhal has fascinated and baffled.
Narwhal tusks, up to nine feet long, were sold as unicorn horns in ages past, often for many times their weight in gold since they were said to possess magic powers. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth received a tusk valued at £10,000 - the cost of a castle. Austrian lore holds that Kaiser Karl the Fifth paid off a large national debt with two tusks. In Vienna, the Hapsburgs had one made into a scepter heavy with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.
Scientists have long tried to explain why a stocky whale that lives in arctic waters, feeding on cod and other creatures that flourish amid the pack ice, should wield such a long tusk. The theories about how the narwhal uses the tusk have included breaking ice, spearing fish, piercing ships, transmitting sound, shedding excess body heat, poking the seabed for food, wooing females, defending baby narwhals and establishing dominance in social hierarchies.
But a team of scientists from Harvard and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has now made a startling discovery: the tusk, it turns out, forms a sensory organ of exceptional size and sensitivity, making the living appendage one of the planet's most remarkable, and one that in some ways outdoes its own mythology.
( Read More )
The Consumer: Women Dress for Comfort in the Heat of the Night
By MARY DUENWALD, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
As fashion trends go, hot flash pajamas are not glamorous. But they stand a chance of holding on for more than one brief season. At least five brands have sprung up in the past five years and, perhaps as a result of the expanding ranks of women turning 50, sales are rising fast.
( Read More )
Beating Malaria Means Understanding Mosquitoes
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
In Africa, 20 percent of the children get 80 percent of the bites from malarial mosquitoes, and an understanding of this could be central to controlling the deadly disease.
Researchers have developed a mathematical model that describes the complex relationship between the proportion of people who are infected with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria, and the rate at which people are bitten by the mosquitoes that carry it.
Some people are bitten more than others because they live where mosquitoes are more common or because the mosquitoes, for various reasons, find them more attractive.
( Read More )
Vital Signs: Having a Baby: Risk and Reality in V-Births and C-Sections
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, December 13, 2005
Elective Caesarean sections have become more common in recent years, in part because many women and doctors believe that vaginal birth is a major risk factor for urinary incontinence.
But a new study published in the December issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology has found no support for this belief.
( Read More )
