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  1. Genetic variation sways risk of diabetes

    A gene carried by up to 85 percent of the people in the world increases susceptibility to diabetes by about 25 percent.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Can poliovirus fix spinal cord damage?

    Scientists have devised a version of the poliovirus that can deliver genes to motor neurons without harming them, a step toward a gene therapy that reawakens idle neurons in people with spinal cord damage.

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  3. Paleontology

    Teeth tell tale of warm-blooded dinosaurs

    Evidence locked within the fossil teeth of some dinosaurs may help bolster the view that some of the animals were, at least to some degree, warm-blooded.

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  4. Materials Science

    Cathedral has weathered London’s acid rain

    A decrease in acid rain seems to be responsible for newly reported reduced deterioration rates of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

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  5. 19329

    I was surprised to read about the extensive research in Puerto Rico that has found a link between phthalates in plastics and premature breast development in young girls. I was under the impression that a completely different culprit, growth hormones in chickens, was established many years ago. The article indicates that the San Juan researchers […]

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  6. Earth

    Girls may face risks from phthalates

    The high incidence of premature breast development in Puerto Rican girls has been linked with phthalates, a family of ubiquitous pollutants found in plastics, lubricants, and solvents.

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  7. Astronomy

    Telescope unveils a stellar deception

    A heavenly masquerade may shed light on the nature of astrophysical jets—the beams of material spewed by a wide variety of celestial objects.

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  8. 19328

    Picture this: The year is 2700. A report is made of an “excavation of an 850-year-old site where butchered human skeletons have yielded evidence of cannibalism.” Corprolite discovered at the site contained “the chemical residue of human flesh.” A group of nomadic cannibals had briefly occupied an area known as Donner Pass. Perhaps prehistoric Anasazi […]

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  9. Archaeology

    Ancient Site Holds Cannibalism Clues

    An 800-year-old Anasazi site in Colorado yields contested evidence of cannibalism.

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  10. 19256

    In your article, Lawrence Sirovich assumes that the degree of unpredictability shown in Supreme Court decisions results from judicial independence, with the implication that this is a good thing. That unpredictability could easily result instead from confusion caused by absent or conflicting principles in the justices’ political and juridical doctrines, a not-so-good thing. Alan EsworthyApex, […]

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  11. Humans

    Ideal Justice: Mathematicians judge the Supreme Court

    The current U.S. Supreme Court of nine judges behaves as if it were made up of 4.68 "ideal" justices who make their decisions completely independently, a mathematical analysis suggests.

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  12. Materials Science

    Easy Repair: Novel structural model heals with heat

    The vertebrate spine has provided inspiration for making new structures that heal when heated.

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