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  1. Materials Science

    Slick Surfaces: Pressure builds to make better motor oils

    Motor oil's protection against the wear and tear of steel engine parts takes effect only at high pressures.

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  2. 19527

    Regarding the therapeutic effects of sunflower-seed oil on infants, has any research been done as to the health benefits of the oil in any other age group? Yael LevyNew York, N.Y. Research to date has focused on newborns, says researcher Gary L. Darmstadt of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. However, a few studies have suggested […]

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Anoint Them with Oil: Cheap-and-easy treatment cuts infection rates in premature infants

    Massaging premature babies with sunflower-seed oil can cut bloodborne infection rates.

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  4. 19526

    This article includes three images of the Arches cluster near the center of the Milky Way, each taken with a different telescope. I’d be interested to know what the three telescopes are. John McKeeBrunswick, Maine In the trio of progressively sharper (left to right) images, the leftmost one was taken in 1994 with a 3-meter […]

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  5. Astronomy

    Weighing In on a Star: A stellar size limit

    A new study suggests that no star in our galaxy can weigh more than 150 times the mass of the sun.

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  6. Planetary Science

    Slowpoke: Atmosphere put brakes on meteorite that formed famed crater

    The extraterrestrial object that gouged out Arizona's Meteor Crater about 50,000 years ago struck at a speed much slower than most scientists had previously proposed.

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  7. 19525

    Evidence of animals sensing where people are looking and what they’re seeing is interesting yet hardly new. For years, I have observed that wild rabbits will remain motionless as long as I stare in their direction. But as soon as I avert my eyes or turn my head, the rabbit is gone. Clearly, they correctly […]

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  8. Monkey See, Monkey Think: Grape thefts instigate debate on primate’s mind

    Rhesus monkeys treat a competitor's averted eyes as a license to steal his or her food.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Blindness Hazard: Gene variant tied to macular degeneration

    People who make a particular form of an immune system protein have a heightened risk of developing old-age blindness.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Injections cut need for HIV drugs

    An experimental vaccine, when given to people infected with HIV, appears to reduce their dependence on antiviral drugs.

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  11. Humans

    Death can outdo ABCs of prevention

    Abstinence and monogamy may deserve little, if any, credit for the recent drop in the proportion of Ugandans who are infected with HIV.

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  12. Humans

    Letters from the March 12, 2005, issue of Science News

    Cheaters like us? The model for the emergence of a population of “cheaters” out of a population of “cooperators” described in “When Laziness Pays: Math explains how cooperation and cheating evolve” (SN: 1/15/05, p. 35) gives a fresh viewpoint on existing ecosystems—and much more. Might the evolution of asymmetric modern sex from symmetric DNA exchange […]

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