Uncategorized

  1. Math

    A Fair Slice: New method makes for equitable eating

    A new method for cutting cake yields slices that make everyone equally happy.

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  2. 19772

    This new mathematical method for equitable cake sharing actually leads to a version of Zeno’s paradox. The problem is that the cake remnant left after the referee gives the two eaters their respective, equally valued pieces is no more likely than is the cake as a whole to be homogeneously desirable, thus creating the same […]

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Catching Flu’s Drift: Vaccines fight unexpected influenza

    Vaccination can prevent three of every four flu infections, even when the vaccines are imperfectly tailored to block the common wintertime pathogens.

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  4. Feel No Pain, for Real: Mutation appears to underlie rare sensation disorder in a Pakistani family

    Scientists have tracked down a genetic mutation that makes some members of an unusual family unable to feel pain.

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  5. Earth

    Spread Out: Organic matter scatters carbon nanotubes in water

    Although carbon nanotubes usually clump in water, they readily disperse when the water contains natural organic matter.

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  6. Hottest Fixer: Undersea-vent microbe sets nitrogen record

    A spherical microbe from the weird world of hot-water ocean vents has trumped the nitrogen-processing powers of all organisms previously studied.

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  7. Sniffle-Busting Personalities: Positive mood guards against getting colds

    People with generally positive outlooks show greater resistance to developing colds than do individuals who rarely revel in upbeat feelings.

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  8. 19771

    Is the causal relationship between mood and immune system response so obvious? Could not a healthier immune system cause a more positive outlook, rather than the other way around? Lester WelchAiken, S.C.

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  9. Astronomy

    Comet Sampler: Specimens show that inner and outer solar system mixed

    Just as the solar system was forming some 4.6 billion years ago, some of the hottest material, residing so close to the sun that it was almost vaporized, sped out to the chilliest reaches of deep space, where it became incorporated into comets.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Express delivery for cancer drugs

    A new drug-delivery method has dramatically reduced tumors in experiments conducted with mice.

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  11. Stem cells from bone marrow make new fat

    Some body fat comes from stem cells that migrate out of bone marrow.

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  12. Chemistry

    Happy fish?

    Researchers have detected antidepressant drugs in the brains of fish captured downstream of sewage-treatment plants.

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