One can make a good argument that Nature is the most important science periodical in the world. Among the articles published in it was the famous less than two-page article by James Watson and Francis Crick, announcing the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. That article includes this priority establishing sentence: "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material."
Nature has done us a service, by selecting from the developments in 2012. The journal has published several items, as follows:
The most scientifically interesting photos of 2012, including the crystal structure of caffeine, the smallest reptile ever known, and others.
Reports, in Nature, of work reported in other periodicals, but interesting, including:
A study indicating that birds line their nests with cigarette butts as a means of repelling parasites.
The construction of a jellyfish-like entity from rat muscle cells, complete with a video of the entity swimming.
The discovery of some unusual sponges in the Mediterranean, with a video.
A study, indicating that dark matter actually exists. See here for the Wikipedia's article on the subject.
How it has proved possible to communicate with people in a vegetative state.
Articles in Nature, itself, on interesting subjects, such as:
What we have learned from 50 years of studying people with the two halves of their brains separated. (Lots!)
There's a lot more. Thanks for reading. Read Nature!
Musings on science, the Bible, and fantastic literature (and sometimes basketball and other stuff).
God speaks to us through the Bible and the findings of science, and we should listen to both types of revelation.
The title is from Psalm 84:11.
The Wikipedia is usually a pretty good reference. I mostly use the World English Bible (WEB), because it is public domain. I am grateful.
License
I have written an e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which is free to anyone. To download that book, in several formats, go here.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
The best science of 2012, from Nature
Labels:
artificial life,
birds,
caffeine,
dark matter,
jellyfish,
nests,
parasites,
reptile,
sponges,
vegetative state
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