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  1. 19238

    “Sensing a Vibe: Seismic-alert system could give Los Angeles a few seconds’ warning” (SN: 5/3/03, p. 276: Sensing a Vibe: Seismic-alert system could give Los Angeles a few seconds’ warning) says that the S waves travel at about one-half the speed of the P waves. Then, in this article, it would appear that the P […]

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  2. Earth

    Seismic waves resolve continental debate

    New analyses of seismic waves that have traveled deep within Earth may answer a decades-old question about the thickness of the planet's continents.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease

    Inhibiting the natural protein cyclo-oxygenase-2, or COX-2, might help fight Parkinson's disease.

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  4. Plants

    Any Hope for Old Chestnuts?

    Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the discovery of chestnut blight in the United States, but enthusiasts still haven't given up hope of restoring American chestnut forests.

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  5. Computing

    Minding Your Business

    By means of novel sensors and mathematical models, scientists are teaching the basics of human social interactions to computers, which should ease the ever-expanding collaboration between people and machines.

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  6. Physics

    To pack a strand tight, make it a helix

    The optimal way to pack long strings into small spaces is to coil them into helices—particularly the types of helices found in proteins and perhaps DNA.

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  7. Computing

    Tight packaging for digitized surfaces

    A novel digital compression scheme may make it practical to transmit detailed models of three-dimensional surfaces over the Internet.

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  8. Computing

    Computer grid cracks problem

    A large network of powerful computers solved a 32-year-old optimization challenge known as the "nug30" quadratic assignment problem.

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  9. Computing

    Strength and weakness in diversity

    Although the Internet's redundancy and diversity help it survive local node malfunctions despite its vast size and complexity, it is vulnerable to attacks aimed specifically at the most highly connected nodes.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Antibiotic for Huntington’s disease?

    In mice genetically engineered to develop an illness similar to Huntington's disease, the drug minocycline significantly delays the onset of symptoms and death.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Microbes implicated in heart disease

    Viruses and bacteria besides chlamydia may play a role in human heart disease through an immune reaction to a heartlike protein they produce.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Genes of cholera germ deciphered

    The bacterium that causes cholera has nearly 4,000 genes on its two circular chromosomes.

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