Prague, Okla Tremors from fracking: Scientists have linked Oklahoma’s largest earthquake—a 5.6 magnitude quake near the town of Prague, in 2011—to hydraulic fracturing, supporting claims that the process increases seismic activity. Fracking, as it is known, injects water and chemicals into petroleum deposits in order to extract trapped gas. This week, researchers at the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University, and […]
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In the sci-fi movie Armageddon, astronauts intercept a killer asteroid heading for Earth, saving mankind. NASA is taking the first step to develop the technology to do just that, by planning a mission to slightly alter an asteroid’s orbit. The mission will also serve as an initial test of a solar-electric propulsion system and other technologies essential for a manned […]
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Mystery crater: A 40-foot crater has appeared in the ground near Managua airport. Nicaraguan authorities said the hole was caused by a meteorite that broke off from the passing Pitbull, or 2014 RC, asteroid. But NASA officials said that was unlikely, because such a strike would have produced an enormous fireball streaking across the sky, yet nobody reported seeing anything […]
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Patients are getting larger and perhaps even dangerous doses of radiation from the growing number of advanced medical-imaging tests being ordered by doctors, a new study says. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed data from millions of patients who received medical treatment between 1996 and 2010. They found that the number of patients who underwent CT scans […]
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Just eight months ago, 6-year-old Emma Whitehead was gravely ill with leukemia and running out of options.Two rounds of chemotherapy had already failed, and a bone marrow transplant was no longer possible, The NewYorkTimes reports. So her parents opted for an experimental therapy developed at the University of Pennsylvania that aimed to enlist Emma’s own immune system in the fight […]
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Scientists have long puzzled over the origins of Earth’s vast oceans. Now, new data from the Rosetta spacecraft appear to have crossed one potential source off the list: comets. Rosetta has been in close orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko since August, analyzing its chemical makeup. Among the mission’s goals was to determine if the water locked in the comet’s icy […]
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Ketamine, better known as Special K known to be a psychoactive ‘party drug’ has pharmaceutical companies riding high. Mainly used clinically as an anesthetic in animals and humans, clinical tests have proven it to be effective in treatment for depression, bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior. The effects of Ketamine have a quick onset. Unlike conventional antidepressants, which generally take weeks […]
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Nine out of 10 Americans have a chemical called bisphenol A in their urine, said Nicholas D. Kristof. BPA, which can be found in plastic food containers, soup can linings, ATM receipts, and many other consumer products, is a proven “endocrine disruptor”—a substance that mimics or alters human hormones. Studies have already linked BPA to breast cancer, diabetes, and hyperactivity, […]
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Even in a world where extreme weather is becoming more common, said Sarah Lyall in The New York Times, the past week has been truly bizarre. In China, now suffering through its coldest, harshest winter in memory, the roofs of houses in Xinjiang collapsed under the weight of deep snow. It was so hot in Australia, meanwhile, that forecasters added […]
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The species of bacteria that dominate our guts may strongly affect whether we’re thin or fat. Researchers at Washington University collected samples of gut bacteria from pairs of twins in which one was obese and the other thin. Then they transplanted the bacteria into mice. The mice that received the bacteria from the obese twins became obese; the mice that […]
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