Uncategorized

  1. 19888

    Other than people with HIV or AIDS, the prime model for a group overrepresented among those taking the option of physician-assisted suicide would appear to be educated, insured, financially comfortable, psychologically fit, nondisabled white males between the ages of 21 and 80. Perhaps the research simply demonstrates that we are loath to yield control, even […]

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  2. Archaeology

    Lake-Bottom Bounty: Some Arctic sediments didn’t erode during recent ice ages

    Sediments in a few lakes in northeastern Canada were not scoured away during recent ice ages, a surprising find that could prove a boon to climate researchers.

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  3. Dangerous DNA: Genes linked to suicidal thoughts with med use

    Two gene variations mark many patients who develop suicidal thoughts when treated with widely used antidepressants.

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  4. Humans

    Letters from the October 6, 2007, issue of Science News

    Cat scam? Oscar the cat possibly does identify dying patients (“Grim Reap Purr: Nursing home feline senses the end,” SN: 7/28/07, p. 53), but the story you printed presents anecdotal rather than scientific evidence and does not belong in a science magazine. Julie EnevoldsenSeattle, Wash. Correlation is not causation. Could it not be that, somehow, […]

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  5. Agriculture

    They fertilized with what?

    Fields fertilized with human urine yield bigger cabbages.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Lonely white cells

    In chronically lonely people, white blood cells show abnormal gene activity that may affect health through immune responses.

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  7. Earth

    Iron to blame

    Typhoons that drench Madagascar and spill iron-rich runoff into the Indian Ocean account for that region's massive but sporadic algal blooms.

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  8. Animals

    Tough-guy bluebirds need a frontier

    As western bluebirds recolonize Montana, the most aggressive males move in first, paving the way for milder-mannered dads to take over.

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  9. Physics

    Hot stuff

    A plasma-based amplifier bumps up a laser's intensity by an unprecedented 20,000 times.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Neptune’s balmy south pole

    Neptune's south pole is about 10°C warmer than any other place on the planet.

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  11. Plants

    Stalking the Green Meat Eaters

    Pitcher plants in a New England bog hold little ecosystems in their leaves, and also act as indicators of the bog's ecological health.

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  12. 19887

    In Rio Linda, Calif., on Oct. 4, 1957, my seventh grade classmates and I (the front edge of the baby boom) were busily clipping news accounts of Sputnik for our daily current-events assignment. Less than a year later, we became the first eighth grade class in the school’s history to enroll in Algebra I. Our […]

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