Uncategorized
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19896
This article indicates that Adam appeared on the fifth day. The actual day of Adam’s appearance, according to Genesis, chapter 1, is the sixth day. Nathan S. ClemonsEtchison, Md. I found your reference to the Christian creation myth offensive. I’ll bet it brought the same feeling to anyone else who, like me, has worked to […]
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Good Buzz: Tiny vibrations may limit fat-cell formation
Mice that spend time on a mildly vibrating platform develop bone or muscle cells in preference to fat cells.
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19895
Mild vibration encourages precursor cells to turn into muscle and bone. This seems like something NASA could use to keep astronauts fit. Rich DesiletsSanta Rosa, Calif. It would be interesting to some way check fat versus muscle cells in airline pilots and crew; ship crews; anyone who rides the subways to work or the passengers […]
- Math
Mathematical Fortune-Telling
A researcher uses game theory to predict the outcome of political and business challenges, including the current dispute with Iran over nuclear technology.
- Tech
Catch a Wave: Carbon nanotubes go wireless
Despite all the hubbub about carbon nanotubes as possible building blocks of superstrong materials or as components of supersmall electronics, few practical applications have yet come to fruition. Integrating nanotubes into functioning electronic devices has proved especially difficult, but researchers have now built a carbon-nanotube component into a simple radio receiver. TINY RADIO. A single […]
- Paleontology
Digging the Scene: Dinos burrowed, built dens
Dinosaurs remains fossilized within an ancient burrow are the first indisputable evidence that some dinosaurs maintained an underground lifestyle.
- Health & Medicine
HIV-positive people getting heavier
With drug treatment, HIV-infected people no longer suffer from wasting but are about as overweight or obese as the U.S. population as a whole.
- Health & Medicine
‘Knuckle fever’ reaches Italy
A virus that causes debilitating fever and joint pain has spread from Africa to Italy, where it has caused at least 284 cases of illness.
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19894
This article says that chikungunya means “stooped over in pain” in an African dialect. But which one? Africa has a thousand languages, many of which have more than one dialect. Pol ShwingkCarlisle, Iowa The word comes from the language of the Makonde people of eastern Africa, although it has sometimes been labeled erroneously as Swahili. […]
- Health & Medicine
Twice bitten
Repeat episodes of Lyme disease are more likely caused by a second tick bite rather than by a return of the original illness.
- Health & Medicine
Ulcer bug may prevent asthma
Children whose stomachs carry the bacterium Helicobacter pylori are at lower risk for asthma than children who don't have the bug.
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19893
“Antibiotics in infancy tied to asthma” (SN: 7/7/07, p. 14) reported a correlation but no confident explanation for the relationship between receiving antibiotics and later developing asthma. This article, which reports that children with Helicobacter pylori in their stomachs are less likely to get asthma, seems to offer a convincing answer. Virginia BrockRock Island, Ill.
