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  1. From the September 12, 1931 issue

    ELEPHANTS JAWBONE SHOWS LIKENESS TO SCOOP SHOVEL Where the idea of the present-day scoop shovel came from is suggested in the illustration on the cover of this weeks Science News Letter. When President Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American Museum of Natural History received the weird lower jawbone of an ancient Asian elephant, he was […]

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  2. Physics

    Caught in a Flash

    View the tip of a snapped towel (which moves faster than the speed of sound), then take a look at a bursting water balloon, a collapsing water drop, a tennis ball in mid-collision with a racket, and many other amazing images in this gallery of high-speed photos snapped by high school students. Sorry! This Web […]

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  3. Math

    Waves of Congestion

    You’re confined to a single lane as you drive along a narrow, winding road. The car in front of you suddenly slows, then just as inexplicably accelerates a short time later, only to slow again. As you keep adjusting to the leading car’s erratic speed changes, you sometimes find a clump of vehicles closely tailing […]

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  4. Math

    Waves of Congestion

    You’re confined to a single lane as you drive along a narrow, winding road. The car in front of you suddenly slows, then just as inexplicably accelerates a short time later, only to slow again. As you keep adjusting to the leading car’s erratic speed changes, you sometimes find a clump of vehicles closely tailing […]

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  5. Chemistry

    Novel material fights against cavities

    A new material that dentists might eventually put under fillings and braces secretes calcium and phosphate ions to rebuild teeth as cavities form.

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  6. Chemistry

    Argon keeps chips and lettuce crisp

    A new technique replaces the air in food packages with argon instead of widely used nitrogen, improving taste and shelf life.

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  7. Chemistry

    Tiny spheres may deliver oral insulin

    Researchers have developed microscopic spheres that can sneak insulin past the stomach so it can be absorbed in the small intestine.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Study challenges surgery for lung disease

    Patients with the most severe emphysema shouldn't undergo major surgery that removes part of their damaged lungs.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Walking and eating for better health

    A low-fat diet and regular exercise can ward off diabetes in people at high risk of developing the disease.

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  10. Chemistry

    Faster, Better, Cleaner?

    Chemists have found that a new class of compounds, called ionic liquids, can substitute for widely used, messy organic solvents while also performing better and producing new products of interest to industry.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Gene implicated in deadly influenza

    A strain of influenza virus that struck in Hong Kong in 1997 got some of its lethality from a mutation in the gene encoding an enzyme called PB2.

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  12. 18965

    The article says that evidence of past climate variations in Antarctica may invalidate global warming as a cause for the recent demise of several ice shelves in that area. Isn’t the length of time over which the changes occurred the critical thing? If the changes are occurring over roughly the same time span as they […]

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