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There were a ton of cool stories today - did the New York Times know it was my birthday?
Observatory: Same-Sex Parents in Albatross Colony
By HENRY FOUNTAIN, The New York Times, June 3, 2008
Cooperative breeding, in which an animal assists in caring for offspring that are not its own, is often found in nature. But researchers in Hawaii have uncovered a case that is not so common, involving long-term pairs of unrelated birds of the same sex.
( Read More )
Essay: An Overflowing Five-Day Banquet of Science and Its Meanings
By DENNIS OVERBYE, The New York Times, June 3, 2008
It was on Friday evening, about 7 o’clock, that I began to wonder whether I would wind up hating Brian Greene and Tracy Day.
I was in a theater at the Metropolitan Museum of Art listening to Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist, author and intellectual omnivore, describe contracting cancer in an eyeball. Dr. Sacks being Dr. Sacks, he was turning the decline of his vision into insights about his brain, showing sketches of the new world he sees — the Empire State Building, for example, no longer tapering but splaying outward like a mushroom.
But just as Dr. Sacks was getting rolling, I had to go, stepping on toes, banging knees and rushing up the street to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum if I wanted to find out the answer to the burning question of what happens when you teach a dancer string theory.
Now, I could have stayed with Dr. Sacks and gone to the Guggenheim the next night, when the Armitage Gone! dance company would repeat its performance. But then I wouldn’t be able to see the debate that night by a stageful of biologists, philosophers, physicists, neuroscientists and computer scientists about what it means to be human.
Of course, seeing that show meant that I could not go to an alternative-energy forum full of visionary schemes for powering the planet.
That was the World Science Festival in New York City this past weekend: 46 shows, debates, demonstrations and parties spread over five days and 22 sites between Harlem and Greenwich Village, organized by Dr. Greene, the Columbia physicist and author, and his wife, Ms. Day, a former ABC-TV producer. Jugglers and philosophers, magicians and biologists, musicians and dancers — a feast one couldn’t hope to sample fairly.
( Read More )
Essay: Repairing the Damage, Before Roe
By WALDO L. FIELDING, M.D., The New York Times, June 3, 2008
With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside.
When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can.
( Read more )
With a Tiny Bit of Cancer, Debate on How to Proceed
By LAURA BEIL, The New York Times, June 3, 2008
In a cancer patient, lymph nodes are the closest thing to a crystal ball. Gaze into them after removing a tumor. The presence of malignant cells may be a sign that the cancer will recur, leading to more tests and intensive treatment.
As biopsies of the lymph nodes grow more sophisticated and sensitive, oncologists and patients face the unsettling question of what to do with a little bit of cancer. It has become a familiar debate, especially for breast cancer, with no clear answer in sight.
( Read More )
Global Update: Noninfectious Illnesses Are Expected to Become Top Killers
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, June 3, 2008
As the world’s population ages, gets richer, smokes more, eats more and drives more, noncommunicable diseases will become bigger killers than infectious ones over the next 20 years, the World Health Organization is reporting.
The report, World Health Statistics 2008, shows that diseases like diarrhea, AIDS, tuberculosis, neonatal tetanus and malaria will become less important causes of death as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and traffic accidents claim greater percentages of victims. There will still be wide disparities, the report says. Infectious diseases will remain major killers in Africa but should decrease in Asia.
( Read More )
Isolated in Amazon, Visible From the Air
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 31, 2008
Aerial photographs of an isolated community of indigenous people in the Amazon basin, near the border shared by Brazil and Peru, were released this week to show that they exist but may be endangered by illegal logging.
( Read More )
Stonehenge Used as Cemetery From the Beginning
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 30, 2008
At least part of the mystery of Stonehenge may have now been solved: It was from the beginning a monument to the dead.
( Read More )
DNA Offers Clues to Greenland’s First Inhabitants
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, May 30, 2008
A swatch of hair, so thick and tangled it could have belonged to man or bear, has provided answers about a mysterious culture and its origins half a world away.
The culture is that of the first people to have occupied Greenland some 4,500 years ago. Known to archaeologists as the first Paleo-Eskimo culture, it gave way to a second Paleo-Eskimo culture some 2,500 years ago and then 700 years ago to the Thule culture of the present-day Inuit peoples. Some archaeologists suggested that each culture might have descended from its predecessor, but proof required obtaining DNA from the earlier cultures and comparing it with that of the Inuit.
( Read More )
Observatory: Same-Sex Parents in Albatross Colony
By HENRY FOUNTAIN, The New York Times, June 3, 2008
Cooperative breeding, in which an animal assists in caring for offspring that are not its own, is often found in nature. But researchers in Hawaii have uncovered a case that is not so common, involving long-term pairs of unrelated birds of the same sex.
( Read More )
Essay: An Overflowing Five-Day Banquet of Science and Its Meanings
By DENNIS OVERBYE, The New York Times, June 3, 2008
It was on Friday evening, about 7 o’clock, that I began to wonder whether I would wind up hating Brian Greene and Tracy Day.
I was in a theater at the Metropolitan Museum of Art listening to Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist, author and intellectual omnivore, describe contracting cancer in an eyeball. Dr. Sacks being Dr. Sacks, he was turning the decline of his vision into insights about his brain, showing sketches of the new world he sees — the Empire State Building, for example, no longer tapering but splaying outward like a mushroom.
But just as Dr. Sacks was getting rolling, I had to go, stepping on toes, banging knees and rushing up the street to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum if I wanted to find out the answer to the burning question of what happens when you teach a dancer string theory.
Now, I could have stayed with Dr. Sacks and gone to the Guggenheim the next night, when the Armitage Gone! dance company would repeat its performance. But then I wouldn’t be able to see the debate that night by a stageful of biologists, philosophers, physicists, neuroscientists and computer scientists about what it means to be human.
Of course, seeing that show meant that I could not go to an alternative-energy forum full of visionary schemes for powering the planet.
That was the World Science Festival in New York City this past weekend: 46 shows, debates, demonstrations and parties spread over five days and 22 sites between Harlem and Greenwich Village, organized by Dr. Greene, the Columbia physicist and author, and his wife, Ms. Day, a former ABC-TV producer. Jugglers and philosophers, magicians and biologists, musicians and dancers — a feast one couldn’t hope to sample fairly.
( Read More )
Essay: Repairing the Damage, Before Roe
By WALDO L. FIELDING, M.D., The New York Times, June 3, 2008
With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside.
When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can.
( Read more )
With a Tiny Bit of Cancer, Debate on How to Proceed
By LAURA BEIL, The New York Times, June 3, 2008
In a cancer patient, lymph nodes are the closest thing to a crystal ball. Gaze into them after removing a tumor. The presence of malignant cells may be a sign that the cancer will recur, leading to more tests and intensive treatment.
As biopsies of the lymph nodes grow more sophisticated and sensitive, oncologists and patients face the unsettling question of what to do with a little bit of cancer. It has become a familiar debate, especially for breast cancer, with no clear answer in sight.
( Read More )
Global Update: Noninfectious Illnesses Are Expected to Become Top Killers
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, June 3, 2008
As the world’s population ages, gets richer, smokes more, eats more and drives more, noncommunicable diseases will become bigger killers than infectious ones over the next 20 years, the World Health Organization is reporting.
The report, World Health Statistics 2008, shows that diseases like diarrhea, AIDS, tuberculosis, neonatal tetanus and malaria will become less important causes of death as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and traffic accidents claim greater percentages of victims. There will still be wide disparities, the report says. Infectious diseases will remain major killers in Africa but should decrease in Asia.
( Read More )
Isolated in Amazon, Visible From the Air
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 31, 2008
Aerial photographs of an isolated community of indigenous people in the Amazon basin, near the border shared by Brazil and Peru, were released this week to show that they exist but may be endangered by illegal logging.
( Read More )
Stonehenge Used as Cemetery From the Beginning
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 30, 2008
At least part of the mystery of Stonehenge may have now been solved: It was from the beginning a monument to the dead.
( Read More )
DNA Offers Clues to Greenland’s First Inhabitants
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, May 30, 2008
A swatch of hair, so thick and tangled it could have belonged to man or bear, has provided answers about a mysterious culture and its origins half a world away.
The culture is that of the first people to have occupied Greenland some 4,500 years ago. Known to archaeologists as the first Paleo-Eskimo culture, it gave way to a second Paleo-Eskimo culture some 2,500 years ago and then 700 years ago to the Thule culture of the present-day Inuit peoples. Some archaeologists suggested that each culture might have descended from its predecessor, but proof required obtaining DNA from the earlier cultures and comparing it with that of the Inuit.
( Read More )
