Tabla de contenidos para Dec-12 en Science Illustrated

Probes have been visiting Venus since the earliest days of the Space Age. In fact, Venus was the first planet to be visited by a probe. The Russians launched a probe toward Venus in 1961, but it was the U.S. probe Mariner 2 that took the first measurements. However, approaching Venus presents major challenges. The sunlight is almost twice as strong as it is on Earth, so it is necessary to cool the craft to prevent its instruments from being destroyed by the heat. And the problems intensify when astronomers attempt to land their instruments on the surface. The atmosphere is dense and filled with carbon dioxide, a combination that generates a greenhouse effect and can create surface temperatures of up to 900 degrees F. Additionally, the pressure is 90…

One way in which the United States may not want to lead the world is in obesity rates, but North Americans now constitute a third of all obese people. An international team of scientists studying data from the World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that the world's adults weigh a total of 321 million tons — 3.92 million of which consist of excess fat. Although North Americans only account for 6 percent of the world's population, they carry almost 1.33 million tons of excess fat, indicated by a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30. Asians comprise 61 percent of the world's population, but account for just 13 percent of all obesity. Asia 61% North America 6% Europe 13% Africa 12% Latin America 8% Oceania 1% Oceania 1% Asia 13%…

Like many ancient Egyptians, the female pharaoh Hatshepsut took her looks seriously. But the cream that she used was deadly, says German archaeologist Michael Höveler-Müller, who removed the stopper from a small bottle in the Bonn Egyptian Museum and found a tragic 3,500-year-old secret. When Egyptologists unearthed the mummy of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, at first they weren't sure exactly whom they had found. It was yet another mystery surrounding one of Egypt's most enigmatic pharaohs. But as it turns out, her burial site held other secrets too — namely, a small bottle that appeared to have been used to store perfume. The bottle may even hold a 3,500-year-old clue about how the powerful ruler's life came to an end. From the first time he saw it, German Egyptologist Michael…

Chronic inflammatory bowel disease Nicholas' symptoms closely resemble those of chronic inflammatory bowel disease, or Crohn's disease. It is extremely unusual for such a young patient to have Crohn's, but doctors initially consider it the likeliest culprit. SYMPTOMS: Crohn's disease is characterized by stomachaches, fever, diarrhea and weight loss. The disease affects the lower part of the small intestine and/or the colon, but the entire gastrointestinal tract may be affected as well. Swelling and redness appear on the afflicted parts of the body; ulcers, which may rupture, also can appear on the skin or in the mouth. CAUSE: The root cause of Crohn's disease is still unknown, but the disease may be hereditary. Lifestyle and environmental factors are thought to increase the risk of developing the disease. FREQUENCY: Some 700,000…

The small creature looks curiously at its hand, which the teacher is moving in a circular motion. It watches intently as the oatmeal from the package pours into a bowl on the table. And it carefully studies how the teacher moves its hand back to the initial position. Now it must go through the exercise on its own. In a slightly hesitant yet clearly focused motion, the insecure toddler uses its hand to turn over the oatmeal package, sprinkles the oatmeal into the bowl, and moves its hand back. The red mouth lights up the small face. The iCub robot has just learned a new trick. One of the robots of the future, the iCub has been created in our image. Like small children exploring the world, who proceed by…

THE HEAD'S MAIN FEATURE is the eye, an HD camera with a 90-degree perspective. Its built-in computer quickly identifies the most important elements of the visual field before the information is processed by a larger computer. THE FLEXIBLE WRIST is controlled by two “muscles,” allowing the hand to move sideways and up and down. The finger joints can be bent, but all of the fingers are controlled by the same muscle and can only be moved together. TOUCH-SENSITIVE SENSORS mounted on its fingertips and palms allow the ECCERobot to sense what it is touching. Other parts of its body have electronic accelerometers that can register shocks and vibrations. BONES AND JOINTS ARE COPIED FROM HUMANS and made of a special type of plastic that makes them strong and slightly elastic…

Thanks to superior optics and a flexible design, the new NuSTAR X-ray telescope, which was launched in June, is expected to provide astronomers with the sharpest images yet seen of black holes, supernovae and neutron stars, and to broaden our understanding of the universe's wildest phenomena. Stars can live for billions of years, shining brightly in a dark universe until they exhaust the nuclear fuel at their cores. But for many stars, the trade-off for such longevity is a spectacularly violent end: They may be torn apart as supernovae, or they may collapse in upon themselves, forming a black hole so dense and powerful that not even light can escape its gravity. This is how such an extreme phenomenon in the universe influences its surroundings. If matter falls into a…

1 What number replaces the question mark? 2 Which of these figures is not like the others? 3 Determine the numbers that fill the empty spaces. 4 Place the numbers in order so that: 5 27 9 is to as 25 5 is to A B C D E Problem 1: 3,096. Multiply the individual digits of the number on the left to get the first and second digits of the number in the center; then multiply the individual digits of the number on the right to get the third and fourth digits of the number in the center: 5 × 2 × 3 = 30 and 8 × 2 × 6 = 96. Problem 2: E is diff erent from the rest. The other figures all have an arrow…

1 RIGHT, 2 WRONGS Only one of the three statements on each card is correct; the others contain one or more errors. See page 62 for the answers. A Flamingos owe their beautiful pink coloring to carotenoids in their food. Otherwise the birds would be white. B The okapi was discovered in 1912 by German scientist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) in the dense Ituri forest of Congo. C The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the world's largest and heaviest fish, weighing up to 200 tons. A Mexico City is sinking up to 2 feet a year because the city is located on top of what used to be a lake. B The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe. It flows through 10 countries and into the Caspian Sea. C The…

The Earth rotates around its own axis once every 24 hours — and we should be grateful for that. If the planet rotated more slowly, the climate, oceans and weather would be affected in some very unpleasant ways. The slower rotation would result in greater differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures. No one can say at what point this would make the Earth uninhabitable, but a day that lasts as long as a week would create extremely hot days and cold nights, and would result in the tropics becoming a hostile environment for most life-forms. A slower rotation would also cause other changes, such as a weaker magnetic field and the formation of new oceans and landmasses. Weather systems would change radically, as would ocean currents, which would likely cause…

With its sun-hugging orbit and surface temperatures that exceed 752 degrees F, Mercury seems an unlikely place to find ice — but it just might have some. Even the hottest known planet has some cool spots, namely in craters near the poles that lie in permanent shadow. If a NASA theory is correct, those areas might be cold enough to hold ice. In the 1990s, Earth-based telescopes detected areas near the planet's poles that are highly reflective, just as ice is. New images from the Messenger probe indicate that the reflective areas closely match the locations of the always-dark craters. The researchers, from the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, won't declare that the reflectivity is caused by ice until they have more corroborating evidence, but they plan to…

Among spiders, mating for life takes on a whole new meaning: WARNING: What you're about to see in this story will introduce you to the bizarre, often danger-filled world of spider sex. Read on at your own risk, because arachnids' love lives are not for the faint of heart — among humans or spiders — and when it comes to perpetuating the species, love's got nothing to do with it. From predatory females who only stop hunting long enough to grudgingly reproduce (and then find a meal in their hapless mate) to males driven for unknown reasons to amputate their own sex organs, spiders are the top contenders for having nature's most terrifying mating rituals. Danger lurks everywhere and often; for the smaller male spider, getting lucky might be the…

Colostomy Nicholas' condition deteriorates; he is hospitalized many times. He is tormented by fistulas: small, tubular channels through which feces leak from his intestine. SURGERY: Nicholas undergoes a colostomy, which creates a channel running from his colon to an external pouch, called a colostomy bag, that collects his waste. RESULT: The surgery doesn't help. Within a month, new fistulas appear. Blood poisoning, or sepsis, occurs when intestinal bacteria invade his bloodstream, and on more than one occasion, his life is in danger. The doctors give him blood, plasma and platelet transfusions and strong antibiotics. Bypassing the colon…

In the future, scientists hope to make robots that are conscious, independent and able to understand and carry out tasks on their own. But first, such robots will need to be given capabilities the human brain possesses. Electronic circuit processes sensory impressions and plans actions. Can establish social relationships and develops via games and play. Electronic circuit learns how objects function and are organized. Information from a camera in the eye sent to PC. Information from mics in the ears sent to PC. Electronic circuit coordinates muscles' reciprocal motions, allowing them to move in tandem.…

Had their fossilized bones not emerged from the ground, no one would believe that they had ever existed. But it's hard to miss thigh bones that are as tall as a man and thoracic vertebrae so huge that you need a forklift to move them. Ever since sauropods — the giant dinosaurs with the extra-long necks — were described for the first time in the 1800s, they have given scientists plenty of fodder for debate. The iconic dinosaurs were the largest animals to ever live on dry land, weighing in at up to 88 tons, roughly the weight of 12 African elephants. They were long considered large, stupid and slow, and were thought only to have existed briefly during the Jurassic period some 175 million years ago — basically, a…

NuSTAR's primary goal is to study some of the universe's most extreme phenomena, such as black holes and supernovae. Some astronomers are convinced that most large galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centers that attracts gas, dust and stars with an extraordinarily powerful gravitational pull. This process generates intense radiation seen only in conjunction with black holes. NuSTAR will allow scientists to analyze this radiation and estimate the size of many black holes as well as how they attract matter. Some massive stars end their lives in spectacular explosions as supernovae. Gas and dust are ejec-ted into space, leaving behind a small, very dense object: a small black hole or a neutron star. If either of these pairs up with a star, it can attract matter from the…

Which of the items described below is shown in the picture (right)? 1 CHAMELEON Chameleons can change color — but not, contrary to popular belief, for camouflage. A chameleon's color changes primarily in response to light, temperature and mood. 2 CORAL REEF Coral reefs house some 4,000 species of fish. Primarily located in tropical waters, many reefs are now endangered due to the increasing acidification of the world's seas. 3 CACTUS Many cactus species have adapted to their arid desert environments by trading leaves for spines, which help limit water loss and provide a defense against predators. Guess What: 1. Chameleon…

Recent findings are casting further doubt on the idea that Homo sapiens has been the sole human species on Earth since the Neanderthals died out. Australian and Chinese scientists have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown prehistoric people who dwelled in caves in southwest China as recently as 11,500 years ago. The bones and skulls of the four individuals do not resemble anything seen before, but feature an odd range of modern, primitive and unique traits, such as large eyebrow ridges, broad cheekbones and a thick skull, some of which are also observed in modern humans who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago. Their brains were small, but the frontal lobe, which plays a role in personality and behavior, was similar to a modern human's, while the back…

It's a venture that began as a balloon voyage, turned into a mission from the edge of space, and then ended as a parachute jump. When Austrian sky diver Felix Baumgartner stepped out of his capsule on Oct. 14, wearing nothing but a spacesuit, he fell more than 24 miles, breaking the sound barrier — and, perhaps, new ground in making space travel safer. Science Illustrated goes behind the scenes of Baumgartner's first test jump — and looks at the technology that made his daring feat possible. As the altimeter reaches 71,615 feet, Felix Baumgartner opens the hatch of his small space capsule. He steps out onto a small landing, holding on to the railings on each side. Beneath him, Earth's radiant blue arc curves toward the horizon. As a…

NAME: Nicholas Volker DATE OF BIRTH: Oct. 26, 2004 SYMPTOMS WHEN FIRST HOSPITALIZED: DIAGNOSIS: Unknown. Doctors carry out multiple examinations and take several blood samples but are unable to arrive at a definitive diagnosis. TREATMENT: Drugs. Shortly before turning 2, a little boy arrives at a Wisconsin hospital, suffering from a severe stomachache - and a mysterious condition that leaves doctors baffled. As one treatment after another fails, so does the child, until his doctors test the boundaries of modern medicine … Nicholas Volker turns 2 years old in October 2006, the first time he is hospitalized. He and his parents, Amylynne and Sean Volker, have no inkling of the ordeal that is to come: The hospital will become their second home as he struggles to survive an ailment that…

A Chinese invention, black blasting powder is introduced on battlefields along with the first cannons. Early specimens consist of bamboo cane filled with broken pottery, but the technology advances and the weapons do too, reaching Europe in the 1200s. Additional improvements by Europeans and Russians pave the way to sound films. From cannons … In an effort to improve lectures on ballistics, Austrian artillery general Franz von Uchatius invents a projector that works like a stroboscope and projects a series of drawings of the trajectory of bullets. The invention makes spectators feel like they've seen the cannon actually shoot, but it is simply projected animation. The English photographer Eadweard Muybridge picks up the thread by animating 24 still photos of a galloping racehorse. The photos are printed in a series…

Standing 41 inches tall and weighing 48 1/2 pounds, the iCub is the same size as a 3 1/2-year-old child. It can learn to talk and comprehend an order. It also learns by playing with its arms, hands, legs and feet. THE HEAD CAN MOVE FREELY in all three directions. Its eyes consist of video cameras with a resolution of 640 x 480. Red LEDs can be activated to indicate the eyebrows and mouth and simulate facial expressions. MICS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE HEAD capture sounds, allowing the iCub to react to spoken commands. THE UPPER ARMS ARE ATTACHED to a shoulder that can rotate while a motor pulls a tendon, making the arm move up or down. A motor is used to bend the elbow joint. 53 DIFFERENT…

Scientists long thought that sauropods lived in swamps, where the buoyancy of the water helped support their giant bodies. But their ribs were thin, light and spaced far apart — characteristics similar to land-based animals. A few species featured half-meter-long osteoderms, bony structures in the skin that may have served to stockpile vital minerals against shortages during drought, egg-laying or lean times. The extra-long tail helped sauropods maintain their balance by serving as a counterweight when they moved their heads laterally. It may also have been used for communication. In sauropods' giant digestive systems, bacterial flora converted plant cellulose into digestible substances. Scientists estimate that the largest sauropods were capable of consuming more than a ton of plants per day. Sauropods' lungs were sophisticated and birdlike. Large air sacs moved…

Ever since the 1960s, satellites equipped with X-ray cameras have orbited Earth, providing astronomers with a wealth of information about the universe. In fact, such observations of the extreme radiation immediately surrounding black holes has helped confirm their existence. Both NASA's Chandra telescope and the XMM-Newton launched by the European Space Agency have been functioning excellently since they were launched in 1999, producing impressive X-ray images of the universe and generating thousands of scientific articles. But these telescopes are only able to detect soft X-rays, which do not penetrate the gas clouds of the universe. Thanks to advancements in X-ray mirrors and detectors in recent years, the NuSTAR telescope can now detect more violent hard X-ray radiation much more precisely, making it extremely useful in the search for black holes.…

Which of the people described below is shown in the picture (left)? 1 JEAN-PAUL SARTRE “The writer must … refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution,” Sartre wrote in 1964, when he refused to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature. 2 ALBERT EINSTEIN Einstein was working as a clerk in the Swiss Patent Office in Bern when he first published his special theory of relativity and gave the world the milestone equation E = mc2. 3 RONALD REAGAN The president of the United States from 1980 to 1988, Reagan was well known for his conservative politics and for “Star Wars,” a space-based missile defense program. Guess Who: 2. Albert Einstein…