SLOW DINO: Could the king of dinosaurs have been a slowpoke? Using biomechanical computer modeling, Stanford postdoctoral fellow John Hutchinson and his research partner have demonstrated that Tyrannosaurus rex could probably run only 10 to 25 miles per hour—less than previous estimates. The researchers calculate that a zippy, 45-mph T. rex would have required as much as 86 percent of its body weight in leg muscle—a biological impossibility. To further illustrate that size limits speed, they created a computer model of a 13,228-pound, dinosaur-size chicken. Could it run? “A giant chicken could not even walk,” says Hutchinson. “Big things really don’t move fast.”
KNOW NUKES: According to researchers at Stanford’s Institute for International Studies, the disturbing stories about lost and stolen nuclear material aren’t as bad as they sound: they’re worse. The scholars have compiled a new database that organizes and evaluates public information from several sources worldwide. But researcher Lyudmila Zaitseva estimates that the actual amount of missing weapons-grade material may be 10 times higher than official reports. “That’s the most frightening thing."
