Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    BOOK REVIEW | Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life

    Review by Elizabeth Quill.

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  2. Math

    BOOK LIST | Guesstimation: Solving the World’s Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin

    Learn to use simple arithmetic to approximate anything. Princeton Univ. Press, 2008, 300 p. $19.95 GUESSTIMATION

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Testing nanoparticles

    Testing the toxicity of dozens of nanoparticles en masse may offer a faster track to medical applications.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Pollution and blood clots

    Inhaling tiny pollution particles, even at concentrations allowed in urban air, appears to increase the risk that an individual’s veins will develop potentially lethal blood clots.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Acupuncture as Placebo

    There may be some treatments for which a true placebo is unavailable.

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  6. Humans

    Future scientists

    More than 1,500 high school students will gather in Atlanta to flex their mental muscles at the 2008 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

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  7. Humans

    Science in the City

    The inaugural World Science Festival kicks off in New York May 28 and features a variety of events celebrating the role of science in all aspects of modern life, culture and the arts.

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  8. Computing

    Scientists Get a 2nd Life

    The virtual world of Second Life offers new ways to do and learn about real science.

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  9. Life

    Epic Genetics – Sidebar

    Epigenetic changes can be undone in some circumstances.

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  10. Life

    Epic Genetics

    The way genes are packaged by "epigenetic" changes may play a major role in the risk of addiction, depression and other mental disorders.

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  11. Humans

    The undeciders

    A country’s development seems tied to the size of its executive cabinet, and a mathematical model helps explain why.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Sticky when wet

    An improved way to make the sticky protein that mussels use to cling to underwater rocks could lead to better cardiac stents.

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