Shots - Health News

Research Reveals Yeasty Beasts Living On Our Skin()  

Fungi (cyan) surround a human hair within the skin. A study in the journal Nature shows the population of fungi on human skin is more diverse that previously thought.

May 22, 2013 While studying microorganisms on humans is not new, tracking fungi is. In a census of sorts, scientists checked the skin of healthy volunteers. They found an expansive ecosystem of silent inhabitants.

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Krulwich Wonders...

How Benjamin Franklin Invented A Weight Loss Program, Using Balloons ()  

The Running Footman

May 22, 2013 "Someone asked me," Benjamin Franklin once said, "what's the use of a balloon?" They don't do much. They just float. What are they good for? And Franklin replied, "What's the use of a new-born baby?" They just sit there. They don't do much. You have to imagine possibilities. This is Franklin, in the 1780s, thinking about balloons.

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The Salt

How Genomics Solved The Mystery Of Ireland's Great Famine()  

This illustration from 1846 shows a starving boy and girl raking the ground for potatoes during the Irish Potato Famine, which began in the 1840s.

May 22, 2013 Although scientists have known that a funguslike organism caused the potato blight that triggered the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, they didn't know which strain was the culprit. But they do now, thanks to the genes in some 19th century potato samples.

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Research News

Quantum Or Not, New Supercomputer Is Certainly Something Else()  

Google and NASA are betting that quantum forces are at work inside D-Wave's 512-bit chip.

May 22, 2013 NASA and Google have come together to buy a new kind of computer that the manufacturer says runs on the strange laws of quantum mechanics. But some physicists counter that the machine, known as the D-Wave Two, has never demonstrated a phenomenon known as "quantum entanglement."

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The Two-Way

Storm Chasers Seek Thrills, But Also Chance To Warn Others()  

A tornado moves past homes in Moore, Okla. on Monday.

May 21, 2013 When disaster strikes, our natural instinct is to take cover and seek shelter. But in severe weather, especially the type that breeds tornadoes like we saw in Oklahoma and parts of the Midwest this week, there are those who ride toward the storm.

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The Salt

Vertical 'Pinkhouses:' The Future Of Urban Farming?()  

This "pinkhouse" at Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas, grows 2.2 million plants under the glow of blue and red LEDs.

May 21, 2013 Architects have come up with spectacular concepts for vertical farms that would grow crops in city skyscrapers. But many horticulturists think the future of vertical farming isn't in skyscrapers, but rather in large, indoor warehouses lit up magenta by superefficient LEDs.

Summary

The Picture Show

'Nanogardens' Sprout Up On The Surface Of A Penny()  

This microcorsage is sized perfectly for Abraham Lincoln's jacket lapel on the back of a penny.

May 21, 2013 Engineers have figured out a way to get crystals to form rose and tulip sculptures, each smaller than a strand of hair. The gardens sprout up on a penny dipped in a salt solution. The technique is similar to 3-D printing and could one day be used to make any complex shape.

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The Two-Way

Measuring The Power Of Deadly Tornadoes()  

John Warner surveys the damage near a friend's mobile home in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park, destroyed in Sunday's tornado, near Shawnee, Okla., on Monday.

May 20, 2013 Tornado strength is currently measured on what is called the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which gives the tornado a rating from 0 to 5 based on estimated wind speeds and the severity of the damage.

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Krulwich Wonders...

The Little Metronome That Wouldn't()  

Metronomes

May 20, 2013 Take a metronome. Then take another. Then another. Set them ticking at different times. Look. Lift. (That's the key part.) Watch. Then Laugh. Because you will be dumbfounded.

Summary

The Salt

Can A Piece Of Hair Reveal How Much Coke Or Pepsi You Drink?()  

Carbon isotope analysis: a scientific way to know just how much soda kids are drinking behind parents' backs?

May 20, 2013 People are notorious for under-reporting what they consume — they lie, forget or just guess wrong. For researchers who want to know how much soda we're drinking, a high-tech analysis technique could help.

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