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Updated: 1 hour 23 min ago

Russian Scientists Poised to be First to Reach Ice-Buried Antarctic Lake

2 hours 43 min ago

At a tiny outpost in the middle of Antarctica, Russian scientists are poised to become the first humans to reach a massive liquid lake that has been cut off from the sunlit world for millennia, and may house uniquely adapted life forms that are new to science.    

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Categories: Wild Music News

Lies We Tell Ourselves (preview)

3 hours 43 min ago

In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar , a skeptical Judas Iscariot questions with faux innocence (“Don’t you get me wrong/I only want to know”) the messiah’s deific nature: “Jesus Christ Superstar/Do you think you’re what they say you are?”

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Brain Injury Rate 7 Times Greater among U.S. Prisoners

3 hours 43 min ago

A car accident, a rough tackle, an unexpected tumble. The number of ways to bang up the brain are almost as numerous as the people who sustain these injuries. And only recently has it become clear just how damaging a seemingly minor knock can be. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is no longer just a condition acknowledged in military personnel or football players and other professional athletes. Each year some 1.7 million civilians will suffer an injury that disrupts the function of their brains, qualifying it as a TBI.

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Homeless Project Residents Drink Less If Booze Ban Is Lifted

February 3, 2012 - 8:30pm

This Sunday, millions of Americans will sit down in front of their television or computer, crack open a few beers, and watch the Super Bowl. But if those viewers live in a housing project for the homeless, that booze could get them booted back out to the street. Many homeless housing projects have strict abstinence policies, and require residents to be completely sober. Permitting alcohol, many community organizers reason, would enable addictions and promote a downward spiral into continued drinking and declining health.

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Schism over H5N1 Avian Flu Research Leaks Out

February 3, 2012 - 3:44pm

Caption: Electron micrograph of H5N1 virus (gold) Image: CDC/Courtesy of Cynthia Goldsmith; Jacqueline Katz; Sherif R. Zaki

NEW YORK Sparks flew Thursday night at a New York Academy of Sciences panel discussion about whether or not certain recent research into the H5N1 avian flu virus has created a major biosecurity threat and what, if anything, to do about it.

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Close Super Bowl Boosts Ad At End

February 3, 2012 - 1:43pm

Advertisers will drop $3.5 million for a 30-second spot during Sunday’s Super Bowl. But to get the most bang for their buck, they might want to play their ad right after the game ends--not during it. Because if it's a close one, the time slot right after the final gun should have the most sway with viewers. So says a study in the Journal of Advertising . [ Colleen C. Bee and Robert Madrigal, It’s Not Whether You Win Or Lose, It’s How The Game Is Played: The Influence of Suspenseful Sports Programming on Advertising (forthcoming, no link yet)]

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For Healthy Cities, Government and Business Need to Reverse Roles

February 3, 2012 - 1:00pm

Okay, I have to be honest with you. I love a city, and a downtown with walkways and tunnels and bus stops that tell me where my buses are via GPS and everything else, but sometimes you can just have more connectivity than you need. Remember the internet-connected toaster, that singed the weather forecast into your morning toast?

Well, meet the Big Belly Solar Trash Compactor, a precocious trash can that lives in Raleigh, NC.

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China Greenhouse Gas Emissions Set to Rise Well Past U.S.

February 3, 2012 - 12:40pm

By 2015, China will emit nearly 50 percent more greenhouse gases than the United States, a top Chinese energy researcher said yesterday.

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Isotopes Hint at North Korean Nuclear Weapons Tests in 2010

February 3, 2012 - 12:00pm

By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine

North Korea may have conducted two covert nuclear weapons tests in 2010, according to a fresh analysis of radioisotope data.

The claim has drawn scepticism from some nuclear-weapons experts. [More]

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Is It Ethical to Own an iPhone?

February 3, 2012 - 10:30am

Recent media reports and ongoing protests over the reportedly abhorrent working conditions at factories where Apple's iPhones are produced have left socially conscious Americans with a dilemma: Is it ethical to own an iPhone?

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The Science of Concussion and Brain Injury

February 3, 2012 - 10:00am
How medicine, sports and society are trying to heal and protect the brains of millions amidst the growing awareness of the long-lasting effects of traumatic head injury [More]
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MIND Reviews: The Righteous Mind

February 3, 2012 - 7:00am

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion [More]

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Social Clicks: Sounds Associated with African Languages Are Common in English

February 3, 2012 - 7:00am

Some Africans click, but English speakers don’t. That’s been the conventional wisdom about click sounds, which serve as regular consonants in Zulu and Xhosa and a few other African languages but which were presumed to just be used in English for encouraging a horse, imitating a kiss, or expressing emotions such as disapproval or amazement. But researchers have recently found that clicks are far more prevalent in the world’s lingua franca than had been thought.

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U.N. Declares Somali Famine Over for Now

February 3, 2012 - 6:46am

By Katy Migiro

NAIROBI, Feb 3 (AlertNet) - An exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies have ended famine in Somalia for now but food stocks could run out again in May, the United Nations said on Friday.

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Molecules to Medicine: Plan B: The Tradition of Politics at the FDA

February 3, 2012 - 6:39am

Morning After The Morning's Trash

In my last post , I focused on flaws in the medical device approval process. The Union of Concerned Scientists FDA at a Crossroads meeting also covered problems with drug approval. This is perhaps no better illustrated than by the disappointing decision by Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius to deny the emergency contraceptive, Plan B, over-the-counter status for women under the age of 17 . This was a particular disappointment to many because President Obama had promised that decisions at the FDA would be made based on science, rather than politics. Some of us, naively, hoped that change we can believe in was real, having forgotten that the Tooth Fairy wasn t.

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More with Maryn: McKenna on Antibiotic Resistance

February 2, 2012 - 9:10pm

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about antibiotic resistance in agriculture and human health, MRSA, and a brief return to the subject of fecal transplants. [More]

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Virtual Reality Contact Lenses Could Be Available by 2014

February 2, 2012 - 6:00pm

Contact lenses that help enhance normal vision with megapixel 3D panoramic images are being designed by scientists using military funding.

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Could an Infection Cause Tourette's-Like Symptoms in Teenage Girls?

February 2, 2012 - 5:05pm

Over the weekend Erin Brockovich made the news yet again as she and her nonprofit team descended on the village of Le Roy, N.Y., determined to test for environmental toxins that might be giving the town's teenagers symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. She has reportedly been stonewalled thus far by local officials, who have already ruled out toxins as the cause of last October's sudden outbreak of tics and involuntary movements in 12 girls who attend Le Roy Junior–Senior High School. An environmental testing company surveyed the air and water and found nothing amiss, and a local neurologist concluded upon examining the girls that they had "conversion disorder," a catchall moniker for physical symptoms that originate in the mind because of stress, trauma or even mass hysteria.

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Temperatures--Not Acid--Could Cook Coral to Death

February 2, 2012 - 4:01pm

One of the biggest natural tragedies of recent years is the deterioration of Australia's Great Barrier Reef , a vast structure of coral off the continent's east coast that supports a profusion of wildlife. In addition to overfishing and nutrient pollution, the world's largest natural structure has suffered from rising ocean temperatures. But, perhaps less well known, Australia's west coast has some massive reefs of its own, offshore in the southeastern Indian Ocean. Massive stony corals of the genus Porites swell to the surface, and new research published February 2 in Science suggests those located in the colder waters farthest south are growing better than ever --thanks to warming ocean temperatures.

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Signs Boost Stair Climbing

February 2, 2012 - 3:15pm

There’s an easy way to encourage people to take the stairs instead of an elevator: put up a sign reminding them to.

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