Uncategorized

  1. Health & Medicine

    Moms’ POPs, Sons’ Problems: Testicular cancer tied to a fetus’ pollutant contact

    Women who've had substantial exposure to certain environmental pollutants are more likely than other women to bear sons who develop testicular cancers.

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  2. Chemistry

    Jet Streams: Droplet behavior captured by high-speed camera

    A series of images has captured charged droplets spouting microscopic jets of fluid, a phenomenon that was proposed by Lord Rayleigh in 1882.

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  3. Losing Rhythm: Gene mutation causes heart problems

    Chinese researchers have for the first time identified a genetic defect that causes atrial fibrillation, a disorder in which the heart's upper chambers beat irregularly and too rapidly.

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  4. Humans

    Science Revalued: Report seeks revived Smithsonian science

    A long-awaited report on science at the Smithsonian Institution calls urgently for more funding and also recommends preservation of beseiged materials-research center.

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  5. Bipolar Math Subtractions: Mental disorder may spur math problems in teens

    A new study suggests that bipolar disorder, a psychiatric illness best known for its stormy mood swings, may frequently undermine mathematical reasoning as well.

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  6. 19176

    Your article tells us there are 65 times fewer deaths per mile traveled in flying commercial aircraft than in driving. Fear of being killed in traveling is, I submit, based not on safety per mile traveled but on safety per trip taken. Further, fear of flying is based on the manner of death. If cars, […]

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  7. Humans

    Unfounded Fear: Scared to fly after 9/11? Don’t reach for the car keys

    A new analysis of transportation in the United States shows that flying remains a much safer way to travel than driving, even when airline fatalities resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are included.

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  8. Animals

    Stalking Larvae: How an ancient sea creature grows up

    Scientists have finally observed living larvae of a sea lily, an ancient marine invertebrate related to starfish.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Determined at Birth? Kidney makeup may set hypertension risk

    People lacking a full complement of blood-filtering nephrons in their kidneys at birth are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

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  10. Math

    Spinning to a Rolling Stop

    Spin a coin on a tabletop. As it loses energy and tips toward the surface, the coin begins to roll on its rim, wobbling faster and faster and faster. Toward the end, the coin generates a characteristic rattling sound of rapidly increasing frequency until it suddenly stops with a distinctive shudder. Mathematician H. Keith Moffatt […]

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  11. Math

    A Remarkable Dearth of Primes

    The pursuit of prime numbers–integers evenly divisible only by themselves and 1–can lead to all sorts of curious results and unexpected patterns. In some instances, you may even encounter a mysterious absence of primes. In 1960, Polish mathematician Waclaw Sierpinski (1882–1969) proved that there are infinitely many odd integers k such that k times 2n […]

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  12. Ragweed may boom with global warming

    An experiment that includes artificially heating plots of tallgrass prairie suggests that global warming could boost growth of ragweed, putting more pollen into the air for allergy sufferers.

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