Uncategorized
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19342
In your article on experimental hints of a new subatomic particle, three values are quoted for a particular charge-parity violation, all with error bar. Given the large uncertainties in two of these, the three are undistinguishable. Yet you claim that they “don’t agree.” Does no one look at error bars any more? R.A. WilliamsLos Alamos, […]
- Physics
Particle decays hint at new matter
A surprising disagreement between particle-physics theory and a Japan-based research team's measurement of decay rates of matter and antimatter hints that unknown, heavy subatomic particles may exist.
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Widows show third-year rebound
Women whose husbands die largely overcome their grief-related problems, including depression and social isolation, by about 3 years after their loss, according to a national study.
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The Body Electric
An electric field inside an embryo may tell it whether to place an internal organ on its left or right side.
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18897
It’s very appealing to think that a noninvasive test could pick up the earliest signs of cancers or cardiovascular disease. Despite passionate testimonials of how whole-body CT scanning “saved my life,” we don’t know what the tumors found really would have done. We don’t know that these patients’ lives were improved, much less saved. In […]
- Health & Medicine
To Your Health?
Doctors are divided on whether the value of screening the torso with X-rays to find symptomless disease outweighs the costs.
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19349
The heading of this article should have been “The body generates a feeling of the brain.” The whole idea of Antonio R. Damasio’s theory is that bodily reactions precede brain awareness or a person’s awareness of a specific emotion. William Fudge Dania, Fla. Damasio’s theory is that the brain interprets bodily reactions linked to emotions […]
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19348
Is it within the realm of feasibility that electrons possess an underlying quarklike structure in the manner of protons and neutrons? The hypothesis that electrons can be subdivided into smaller particles termed “electrinos” offers an ideal experimental opportunity to test this concept. Each contingent of such particles could be subjected to repeated expansions into ever […]
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19347
I read and reread this article, hoping to find an explanation of where all those sediments have gone. From appearances, they surely all haven’t been deposited in the Gulf of California. Where else? Does anyone have any satisfying theories? Allen Glenn Abilene, Texas Sediments from the erosion of the Grand Canyon have ended up in […]
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19346
Your article says elevated concentrations of glucose in the blood is “a problem that occurs downstream” of impaired response to insulin. Yet artery blockage is defined as a failure of cells to react to insulin. So, would not the problem be upstream of the impairment? Marry Morel Prescott, Ariz. Downstream of the impairment, here, means […]
- Math
Trimathlon Palindromes
“A man, a plan, a canal–Panama.” This statement is a famous example of a palindrome–a phrase that reads the same forward or backward. Inventive wordsmiths and puzzlists have come up with all sorts of words, sentences, and even paragraphs that have this property. The term palindrome can also be applied to whole numbers, such as […]
- Earth
River Stats Trickle In: Major floods may be waning in Europe
A new analysis of historical flood records from central Europe suggests that widespread inundations in the region have been on the wane for the past century or so.
