Uncategorized

  1. Health & Medicine

    Getting to the core of H1N1 flu deaths

    Lung inflammation and a lack of oxygen in the blood appear responsible for most fatal cases of H1N1 (swine) flu, three studies show.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    H1N1 flu is back and found in 37 states, CDC reports

    Just as vaccine begins to become available, swine flu cases show up in a majority of the United States. And early results from a new study suggest H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccination shots are effective when given during the same visit.

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  3. Physics

    Entangled photons make better messengers

    Quantum effect allows light to carry information farther for computing and encryption

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  4. Paleontology

    Fungi thrived during mass extinction

    Fossil analyses hint that several species thrived during the world’s largest mass extinction.

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  5. All kinds of tired

    Donkeys sleep about three out of each 24 hours. Certain reef fish spend the night moving their fins as if swimming in their sleep. Some biologists argue that all animals sleep in some form or another. But identifying sleep can get complicated. Insects have brain architecture so different from humans’, for example, that electrophysiological recordings […]

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  6. Science Future for October 24, 2009

    November 4–8 Clinicians and researchers meet in San Diego to discuss advances in psychiatric genetics. Visit www.ispg2009.org Through November 21 Watch Gearing Up, a documentary about the FIRST robotics competition. For local listings, see www.gearingupproject.org December 15 Nominations deadline for the Kavli Prizes in nanoscience, neuroscience and astrophysics. Get form at www.kavliprize.no

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  7. Science Past from the issue of October 24, 1959

    Sons with ulcers have dominant mothers — Men who get duodenal ulcers early in life tend to have dominant mothers and submissive fathers. In a Medical Research Council report, a research team recorded that two-thirds of a group of men who got ulcers before they were 25 had mothers who were “dominant and controlling personalities […]

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  8. Letters

    Biofuel feedback “The biofuel future” (SN: 8/1/09, p. 24) proved very enjoyable reading. However, the future and direction of biofuels will be determined by politicians, not scientists. Scientists seem to use crazy things like facts, research and logic to determine the most efficient way to convert plants to fuel. I find it incredible that we […]

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  9. Book Review: The Medicine Cabinet of Curiosities by Nicholas Bakalar

    Review by Rachel Zelkowitz.

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  10. Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw

    By exploring each part of Albert Einstein’s famous equation, two physicists ultimately explain the theory of relativity. Da Capo Press, 2009, 249 p., $24. Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw

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  11. Simulation and its Discontents by Sherry Turkle

    Computer simulation has altered standard practices in science and engineering, but its ubiquity has drawbacks. MIT Press, 2009, 217 p., $22. Simulation and its Discontents by Sherry Turkle

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  12. Humans

    It’s time to reform work hours for resident physicians

    A Harvard Medical School physician and sleep researcher says rules should be changed to make sure physicians-in-training get the sleep they need.

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