Uncategorized
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Feedback matters for getting the joke
Plausible information about how others react to jokes colors a college student's own perception of the humor value of the material.
By Ruth Bennett -
In gauging beauty, congeniality counts
People judge others who have positive personality traits by more lenient physical criteria for attractiveness than they do those about whom they have no personality information.
By Ruth Bennett -
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This article presumes that immanent-justice judgments are irrational. However, poor self-image and other psychosomatic stressors are already suspected of suppressing immunity. Many suspect that momentary emotional flare-ups precede cold and flu symptoms by a couple of days. An elaborate series of experiments might determine whether guilt over past crimes (or crime-motivating rage) made wrongdoers more […]
By Science News -
Older isn’t wiser in moral reasoning
Researchers find more endorsement of immanent justice, the belief that the natural world punishes human misdeeds, among college students than sixth-graders.
By Ruth Bennett -
Out of China: SARS virus’ genome hints at independent evolution
The newly identified SARS virus is the product of a long and private evolutionary history, clues from its genome suggest.
By Ben Harder - Materials Science
Blunt Answer: Cracking the puzzle of elastic solids’ toughness
Rubbery materials prove tougher than theory predicts because cracks trying to penetrate those stretchy materials grow blunt at their tips.
By Peter Weiss - Materials Science
Bone Fix: New material responds to growing tissue
A new scaffolding material stimulates bone regeneration.
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Genetic Clue to Aging? Mutation causes early-aging syndrome
A gene defect that causes accelerated aging may provide insight into normal aging.
By John Travis - Earth
Feel the Heat: Rain forests may slow their growth in warmer world
During a long-term research project in a Central American rain forest, mature trees grew more slowly in warm years than they did in cooler ones.
By Sid Perkins -
Fig-Wasp Upset: Classic partnership isn’t so tidy after all
Genetic analysis suggests that a textbook example of a tight buddy system in nature—fig species that supposedly each have their own pollinating wasp species—may need to be rewritten.
By Susan Milius - Math
Spheres in Disguise: Solid proof offered for famous conjecture
A Russian mathematician has proposed a proof of the Poincaré conjecture, a question about the shapes of three-dimensional spaces.
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The surprising statistic that teenage calorie consumption has remained stable while obesity has burgeoned and that physical activity among this group has fallen sharply may well suggest a cause and effect, but such a conclusion is premature and untested, at best. I wonder whether closer analysis of food intake would demonstrate an overall shift away […]
By Science News