Science Illustrated for Mar/Apr

[dvandom]

Wow. Bad omen...the big two page ad spread on the inside front cover is for total crackpottery. Seriously, the ad alone scores a 100 or so on the Crackpot Index. (The next three pages of ads taunt me, for they are for telescope stuff and it's 100% overcast during the last lunar eclipse until 2010.)

p18-19: Fossilized spider in amber fully imaged with Very High Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography. Nifty, but not for those squicked by spiders.

p21: You think Australia is full of scary evil beasts now? They used to have crocodiles that climbed trees!

p23: Matango lives? There are some species of fungi that feed on hard radiation, using it to grow larger and stronger.

p24: Scientists have discovered how to make any blood type into type O by using specialized bacteria that get rid of the various sugars that make blood be not-O.

p27: Wow, even exercise equipment has crackpot ads.

p38-39: Penguins of the world, unite! I am amused that there is a species of penguin called Gentoo...is there a Geewun Penguin too?

p40: 40 million years ago, there were 7 foot tall penguins. Truly an age of wonders.

p46-53: Piece on the eruption at Thera/Santorini, which may have happened a century earlier than previously thought. This would put it during the Hyksos rule of Egypt, rather than just afterward as was previously thought. Therefore making the Hyksos era out to not be as grim as believed, since there was clear international trade during the years leading up to Thera's eruption.

p60-61: Coooool seafloor-to-peak satellite imaging pics of Hawaii. Many other satellite images of other places on Earth follow.

p89: More crackpottery, this time for a special water-treating machine that I've poked at before in answering a question on Yahoo Answers. This ad has the gall to lambast other water-mod quacks as quacks while claiming it does not too have webbed feet and a bill. Not really liking how many advertisers in this magazine are preying on the scientifically naive. (Pause to write them a letter expressing dismay at this state of affairs.)

Not quite as cool as the first issue, and the crackpottery is a concern, but still pretty good.