Monthly Archives: February 2008
Heating the Sun’s Corona
The temperature at the surface of the sun is 6000 kelvin, but the temperature of the sun’s corona is more than 3,000,000 kelvin. But it is still a mystery how the sun’s corona is heated to such a high temperature. … Continue reading
Phylogeny of Human Populations
Separate analyses of genetic markers from the mitochondrial genome, the Y chromosome, and autosomes have revealed that all humans are descended from a small group of ancestors that lived in eastern Africa. In the 22 February 2008 issue of Science, … Continue reading
Planetary Observation by Amateur Astronomers
In the 24 January 2008 issue of Nature, Sánchez-Lavega et al. published a paper titled “Depth of a strong jovian jet from a planetary-scale disturbance driven by storms.” The paper reports the results of investigations into the circulation jets in … Continue reading
RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase II Activity
In a paper in the 15 November 2007 issue of Nature, Lehmann et al. explore in detail the RNA-dependent activity of RNA polymerase II from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. RNA polymerase normally transcribes RNA from a DNA template, but the ability of … Continue reading
1000 Genomes Project
On January 22, 2008, an international consortium of genome sequencing centers announced the 1000 Genomes Project. The goal of the project is to obtain the sequences of 1000 human genomes. Currently, sequences of three human genomes are publicly available. The … Continue reading
Beginner’s Greek, by James Collins
In the February 24, 2008, edition of the New York Times Book Review, James Kaplan reviews Beginner’s Greek by James Collins. Part comedy of manners, part chick lit in male drag, James Collins’s “Beginner’s Greek” is a great big sunny … Continue reading
