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Indian police hunt Maoists after deadly train crash

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 13:48
SARDIHA, India (Reuters) - Indian police were searching on Saturday for Maoist rebels believed to be responsible for a crash involving a crowded passenger train, as rescuers continued pulling bodies from the wreckage.


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A Quarter Century of Recreational Mathematics, by Martin Gardner

Scientific American Online - Sat, 2010-05-29 13:00

Edit or's note: In light of the recent death of Martin Gardner, we are republishing this article from the August 1998 issue of Scientific American. Gardner wrote the "Mathematical Games" column for Scientific American from 1956 to 1981, and continued to contribute columns on an occasional basis for several years afterward . This article, which includes four puzzles by Martin Gardner, was his final piece for the magazine.

My “Mathematical Games” column began in the December 1956 issue of Scientific American with an article on hexaflexagons. These curious structures, created by folding an ordinary strip of paper into a hexagon and then gluing the ends together, could be turned inside out repeatedly, revealing one or more hidden faces. The structures were invented in 1939 by a group of Princeton University graduate students. Hexaflexagons are fun to play with, but more important, they show the link between recreational puzzles and “serious” mathematics: one of their inventors was Richard Feynman, who went on to become one of the most famous theoretical physicists of the century. [More]

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Economy, immigration drive California governor race

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 12:22
REDWOOD CITY, California (Reuters) - California's dismal economy and fears the nation's largest population of illegal immigrants are stealing scarce jobs are dominating a suddenly tight race for the Republican nomination for governor.


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Meth-Head Snails' Enhanced Memories Offer Clue to Why Addiction Is Hard to Control

Scientific American Online - Sat, 2010-05-29 12:00

Can aquatic snails better remember lessons learned when they are hopped up on methamphetamine? Barbara Sorg of Washington State University in Pullman teamed up with Ken Lukowiak of the University of Calgary Medicine to see if working with snails might provide clues as to why drug memories are so strong that they seem to draw addicts back into repetitive use and addiction . [More]

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Gunmen kill at least 70 in Pakistan mosque attacks

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 10:42
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked worshippers from a minority Muslim sect in two mosques of the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, taking hostages and killing at least 70 people, officials said.


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India police say Maoists sabotage train

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 06:20
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Maoist rebels sabotaged a high-speed train in eastern India on Friday that killed at least 71 people after it derailed and smashed into the path of a goods train, a top Indian police official said.


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South Korea, Japan united against North Korea

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 04:09
SEOGWIPO, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea and Japan vowed on Saturday to stand united against North Korea in a showdown over a sunken ship, raising pressure on China which has been reluctant to join other countries in condemning Pyongyang.


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Most at Guantanamo are low-level fighters: report

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 03:50
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most of the 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison when President Barack Obama took office were low-level fighters, with only 24 considered to be involved in plots against the United States, The Washington Post reported on Friday.


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Gary Coleman dies after brain hemorrhage

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 03:24
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former child star Gary Coleman, who shot to fame on TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" but suffered personal troubles as an adult, died in a Utah hospital on Friday, after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.


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BP fails to plug oil well with "top kill"

Reuters - Sat, 2010-05-29 00:41
VENICE, La./HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc said on Saturday the complex "top kill" maneuver to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.


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Herbal Supplement Sellers Dispense Dangerous Advice, False Claims

Scientific American Online - Fri, 2010-05-28 22:35

Numerous recent studies have undercut the purported benefits of various herbal supplements. Gingko , echinacea and Saint John's wort , have all been found relatively ineffective against many of the ills they have been claimed to help. [More]

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U.S. says Iran sanctions drive must continue

Reuters - Fri, 2010-05-28 22:02
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday brushed aside Brazil and Turkey's efforts to craft a nuclear fuel deal for Iran, saying Tehran must face new U.N. sanctions as soon as possible over its escalating atomic violations.


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Gary Coleman dies after brain hemorrhage

Reuters - Fri, 2010-05-28 20:55
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former child star Gary Coleman, who shot to fame on TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" but suffered personal troubles as an adult, died in a Utah hospital on Friday, after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.


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Comet strike could explain Neptune's air

Scientific American Online - Fri, 2010-05-28 18:45

By Eric Hand

Did a large, icy comet smash into Neptune two centuries ago? That's the picture that is emerging from the latest measurements of gases in the atmosphere of the giant blue planet.

At a meeting this week of the American Astronomical Society in Miami, Fla., Paul Hartogh, project scientist for the Herschel mission, the European Space Agency's infrared observatory satellite, described the mission's first results for the Solar System. [More]

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Green Chemistry: Scientists Devise New "Benign by Design" Drugs, Paints, Pesticides and More

Scientific American Online - Fri, 2010-05-28 17:45

Back in the days when better living through chemistry was a promise, not a bitter irony, nylon stockings replaced silk, refrigerators edged out iceboxes, and Americans became increasingly dependent on man-made materials. Today nearly everything we touch--clothing, furniture, carpeting, cabinets, lightbulbs, paper, toothpaste, baby teethers, iPhones , you name it--is synthetic. The harmful side effects of industrialization--smoggy air, Superfund sites, mercury-tainted fish, and on and on--have often seemed a necessary trade-off.

[More]
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For Want of a Tree, the Ecosystem of Madagascar Might Be Lost

Scientific American Online - Fri, 2010-05-28 16:30

Three years ago, the allure of the lemur brought Meredith Barrett to Madagascar.

The Duke University doctoral student was fascinated by the island, one of the world's most threatened biodiversity hot spots, and wanted to look at the impact of human development on the endangered primates that reside there.

[More]
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White House admits pushing Sestak to drop Senate bid

Reuters - Fri, 2010-05-28 16:24
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House acknowledged on Friday that it tried to get Representative Joe Sestak to drop his Senate bid in exchange for an unpaid job with the administration, but said an internal review concluded it broke no laws.


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A Batty Hypothesis on the Origins of Neurodegenerative Disease Resurfaces

Scientific American Online - Fri, 2010-05-28 15:00

Sprawling blooms of cyanobacteria have swathed the surfaces of lakes and oceans around the world for billions of years. But the serene, blue-green algae may be leaching a neurotoxin into the aquatic food chain, according to a study published May 3 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ). The report revived a nearly 50-year-old debate over the role, if any, of the toxin in the process of neurodegeneration.

[More]
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Gunmen kill at least 70 in Pakistan mosque attacks

Reuters - Fri, 2010-05-28 14:31
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked worshippers from a minority Muslim sect in two mosques of the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, taking hostages and killing at least 70 people, officials said.


Categories: Science News

Apple's iPad goes global

Reuters - Fri, 2010-05-28 13:43
LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Fans mobbed Apple Inc stores in Europe and Asia as the iPad went on sale outside the United States on Friday, with some shoppers having queued all night to buy one of the coveted tablet computers.


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