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The Science of a Happy Marriage
By TARA PARKER-POPE, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
Why do some men and women cheat on their partners while others resist the temptation?
To find the answer, a growing body of research is focusing on the science of commitment. Scientists are studying everything from the biological factors that seem to influence marital stability to a person’s psychological response after flirting with a stranger.
Their findings suggest that while some people may be naturally more resistant to temptation, men and women can also train themselves to protect their relationships and raise their feelings of commitment.
( Read more... )
Mapping Ancient Civilization, in a Matter of Days
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
For a quarter of a century, two archaeologists and their team slogged through wild tropical vegetation to investigate and map the remains of one of the largest Maya cities, in Central America. Slow, sweaty hacking with machetes seemed to be the only way to discover the breadth of an ancient urban landscape now hidden beneath a dense forest canopy.
Even the new remote-sensing technologies, so effective in recent decades at surveying other archaeological sites, were no help. Imaging radar and multispectral surveys by air and from space could not “see” through the trees.
Then, in the dry spring season a year ago, the husband-and-wife team of Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase tried a new approach using airborne laser signals that penetrate the jungle cover and are reflected from the ground below. They yielded 3-D images of the site of ancient Caracol, in Belize, one of the great cities of the Maya lowlands.
In only four days, a twin-engine aircraft equipped with an advanced version of lidar (light detection and ranging) flew back and forth over the jungle and collected data surpassing the results of two and a half decades of on-the-ground mapping, the archaeologists said. After three weeks of laboratory processing, the almost 10 hours of laser measurements showed topographic detail over an area of 80 square miles, notably settlement patterns of grand architecture and modest house mounds, roadways and agricultural terraces.
( Read more... )
A Bottom Feeder Leaves Traces Below
By SINDYA N. BHANOO, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
The series of squiggles and little ovals were perplexing, at first.
But it was only a matter of time before Anthony Martin, a fossil trace expert, deciphered the fossil’s code, and used it to tell the story of a fish that lived 50 million years ago in Wyoming’s Fossil Lake and swam at depths previously thought to be too deep for a fish to breathe in.
The squiggles were impressions of the fish’s fins, sweeping across the lake’s bottom, said Dr. Martin, a professor in the department of environmental studies at Emory University.
( Read more... )
Fruit Fly Gender Varies at the Cellular Level
By SINDYA N. BHANOO, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
Thirty years ago, the biologist Bruce S. Baker discovered that the gender of a fruit fly is determined not by a hormone, but by the expression of a gene called doublesex in individual cells. Female fruit flies express one form of the gene in their cells, while males express another.
Now, with the help of DNA technology, Dr. Baker and his colleagues have made a surprising discovery: not every cell in the fly is marked as male or female.
( Read more... )
By TARA PARKER-POPE, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
Why do some men and women cheat on their partners while others resist the temptation?
To find the answer, a growing body of research is focusing on the science of commitment. Scientists are studying everything from the biological factors that seem to influence marital stability to a person’s psychological response after flirting with a stranger.
Their findings suggest that while some people may be naturally more resistant to temptation, men and women can also train themselves to protect their relationships and raise their feelings of commitment.
( Read more... )
Mapping Ancient Civilization, in a Matter of Days
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
For a quarter of a century, two archaeologists and their team slogged through wild tropical vegetation to investigate and map the remains of one of the largest Maya cities, in Central America. Slow, sweaty hacking with machetes seemed to be the only way to discover the breadth of an ancient urban landscape now hidden beneath a dense forest canopy.
Even the new remote-sensing technologies, so effective in recent decades at surveying other archaeological sites, were no help. Imaging radar and multispectral surveys by air and from space could not “see” through the trees.
Then, in the dry spring season a year ago, the husband-and-wife team of Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase tried a new approach using airborne laser signals that penetrate the jungle cover and are reflected from the ground below. They yielded 3-D images of the site of ancient Caracol, in Belize, one of the great cities of the Maya lowlands.
In only four days, a twin-engine aircraft equipped with an advanced version of lidar (light detection and ranging) flew back and forth over the jungle and collected data surpassing the results of two and a half decades of on-the-ground mapping, the archaeologists said. After three weeks of laboratory processing, the almost 10 hours of laser measurements showed topographic detail over an area of 80 square miles, notably settlement patterns of grand architecture and modest house mounds, roadways and agricultural terraces.
( Read more... )
A Bottom Feeder Leaves Traces Below
By SINDYA N. BHANOO, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
The series of squiggles and little ovals were perplexing, at first.
But it was only a matter of time before Anthony Martin, a fossil trace expert, deciphered the fossil’s code, and used it to tell the story of a fish that lived 50 million years ago in Wyoming’s Fossil Lake and swam at depths previously thought to be too deep for a fish to breathe in.
The squiggles were impressions of the fish’s fins, sweeping across the lake’s bottom, said Dr. Martin, a professor in the department of environmental studies at Emory University.
( Read more... )
Fruit Fly Gender Varies at the Cellular Level
By SINDYA N. BHANOO, The New York Times, May 10, 2010
Thirty years ago, the biologist Bruce S. Baker discovered that the gender of a fruit fly is determined not by a hormone, but by the expression of a gene called doublesex in individual cells. Female fruit flies express one form of the gene in their cells, while males express another.
Now, with the help of DNA technology, Dr. Baker and his colleagues have made a surprising discovery: not every cell in the fly is marked as male or female.
( Read more... )
