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Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Two-Way

NOAA Predicts Above-Average Hurricane Season

Satellite image of Hurricane Sandy in October of last year.

Forecasters predict as many as six major hurricanes in the Atlantic this year due in part to warmer-than-average ocean temperatures.

Summary

Shots - Health News

Researchers Find Bird Flu Is Contagious Among Ferrets

Of ferrets, men and bird flu.

The virus's ability to move between these mammals might not bode well for humans. So far, it appears that H7N9 doesn't pass easily between people, but it could mutate over time and pose more of a threat.

Summary

Shots - Health News

Errors In Stem-Cell Cloning Paper Raise Doubts

Biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov stands outside the monkey enclosure at his lab in Oregon. He says the mistakes in his recent paper were caused by the rush to publish quickly.

Biologists said last week that they had overcome a major obstacle in stem-cell research by cloning human embryos. But several images in the published study were duplicated and labeled incorrectly, prompting questions about the authenticity of the results.

Summary

Shots - Health News

Scientific Tooth Fairies Investigate Neanderthal Breast-Feeding

This model of a molar shows color-coded barium banding patterns that reveal weaning age.

Our closest relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, breast-feed their offspring for several years. Some baby orangutans nurse until they are 7 years old. Researchers found a way to test ancient teeth for clues about when humans cut nursing short.

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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Salt

Could African Crops Be Improved With Private Biotech Data?

The baobob fruit is one of the 100 traditional African food crops that a group of scientists want to learn more about to improve nutrition.

May 22, 2013 A plant scientist at Mars Inc. has appealed to the world's biggest life sciences companies to help him — by sharing what they already know about 100 crops that could provide better nutrition in Africa. But can the kings of agricultural intellectual property get onboard with open source agricultural information for Africa?

Summary

The First Web Page, Amazingly, Is Lost

This computer was the first Web server. It was used by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 to develop and run the first multimedia browser and Web editor.

May 22, 2013 Ironically, there's one piece of Web history that can't be found online: the very first page. Now, a team at the lab where the World Wide Web was born is on a hunt for old hard drives and floppy disks that might hold copies of the missing files.

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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.

Summary

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.

Summary

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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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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 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 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.

Summary

Monday, May 20, 2013

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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