| 2008 OCTOBER October 8, 2008
Financial Crisis Illustrates Influence of Emotions, Behavior on Markets The past month of corporate failures, government rescues and stock market gyrations has visibly shaken the confidence of Wall Street tycoons and ordinary investors alike.
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| October 8, 2008
Study of Glowing Jellyfish Nets Nobel Prize for Trio One Japanese and two American scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for discovering and developing a glowing jellyfish protein that has revolutionized the way researchers study disease and normal development in living organisms.
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| October 6, 2008
European Scientists Share Nobel Prize for Medicine Three European scientists will share this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine, for identifying two deadly sexually transmitted viruses, the Nobel committee announced Monday.
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| SEPTEMBER September 30, 2008
Phoenix Lander Witnesses Snow on Mars NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has spotted snow falling from Martian clouds, and detected evidence of past water at its landing site in the Martian arctic plains.
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| September 26, 2008
Particle Collider Start-up on Hold Until Spring Disappointed scientists learned this week that the Large Hadron Collider -- the most powerful particle collider ever built -- will be shut down until next spring after an electrical glitch sparked a helium leak in the machine's 17 miles of tunnels.
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| September 23, 2008
Google Barges Into Phone Market with G1 and Open-Source Android Software Internet search giant Google on Tuesday unveiled its first foray into the global mobile phone market, introducing the T-Mobile G1, informally known as the "Google phone."
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| September 19, 2008
FDA Hearings, New Research Reignite BPA Controversy The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reiterated its position in a hearing this week that the chemical bisphenol A, used in many plastic household products, is safe in low levels.
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| September 17, 2008
Minneapolis Bridge Reopens Following Last Year's Deadly Collapse Thirteen months after a bridge collapse killed 13 people in Minnesota, a new 10-lane structure reopens to traffic Thursday morning. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the engineering behind the I-35W's multi-million-dollar reconstruction.
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| September 12, 2008
Hurricane Forecasters Wrestle With Uncertainty to Track Tricky Storms By Friday morning there was little question as to the direction of Hurricane Ike's path -- the storm was gaining strength as it barreled toward Texas, and storm surges had already begun to batter the coastal city of Galveston.
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| September 10, 2008
Scientists Celebrate Breakthrough With Particle Collider In an effort to understand some of the basic tenets of physics, scientists and engineers fired a beam of protons around a 17-mile tunnel Wednesday -- a successful first run for the world's most powerful particle accelerator. Brian Greene, host of the PBS series "Elegant Universe," explains the feat.
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| September 10, 2008
Scientists Track Source of Salmonella Outbreak Mystery A salmonella outbreak in May sparked a lengthy investigation that first called tomato crops the culprits, causing farmers to lose $100 million, and later found the true source to be Mexican peppers. Tom Bearden reports on the salmonella probe.
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| September 10, 2008
Scientists Celebrate as Particle Collider Passes First Test Scientists fired a beam of protons around a 17-mile, multi-billion dollar track today -- a successful first run for the world's most powerful particle accelerator.
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| September 5, 2008
Genetic Map of Cancer Reveals Unexpected Complexity Researchers have mapped the genetic blueprint of two of the deadliest forms of cancer, detailing the mutations that lead to tumors of the pancreas and brain.
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| September 4, 2008
Study: Arctic Sea Ice at Second-lowest Level on Record The Arctic ice cap has melted to a point that exceeds the 2005 level -- previously the second lowest on record -- and could surpass the record this year, scientists at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center have said.
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| September 2, 2008
Scientists 'Reprogram' Adult Mouse Cells to Produce Insulin Researchers have discovered a way to convert one type of adult cell to another without stem cells, possibly paving the way for major advances in treating diabetes and other illnesses.
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| September 1, 2008
Rebuilding New Orleans Levees The Gulf Coast landfall of Hurricane Guastav has higlighted the level of preparedness in New Orleans and the region for a major storm system. A top official in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers answers your questions on the rebuilding and reconstruction of levees in New Orleans.
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| AUGUST August 26, 2008
Bloggers Answered Your Questions on Covering Conventions, Politics Kety Esquivel is the founder and a blogger for Crossleft.org, a progressive Christian Web site. Liza Sabater is a blogger and the founder of culturekitchen.com. They answered your questions on the power of new media and the future of political news reporting.
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| August 22, 2008
High Tech High School Pushes Hispanic Students to Become Top Achievers A San Diego charter high school is aiming to close the education gaps between students of immigrant families and their counterparts by motivating them to acquire business and science skills and pursue college degrees. Paul Solman offers the latest in a series of reports on this education initiative.
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| August 22, 2008
90 Years Later, 1918 Flu Lives on in Antibodies, Research Ninety years after the 1918 flu pandemic claimed the last of its approximately 50 million victims, antibodies to the virus live on in people exposed to it as children -- and the pandemic itself is still inspiring research and debate among scientists.
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| August 20, 2008
Countries Map Arctic Boundaries to Build Cases for Resource Rights As a scramble builds to establish rights over the valuable natural resources hidden under the Arctic sea floor, U.S. researchers embarked from Barrow, Alaska, in mid-August on a three-week mission to map regions of the vast underwater landscape.
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| August 18, 2008
Bottling Giant, Maine Residents Battle over Water Bottled water is a hot commodity -- Americans drank almost 9 billion gallons of it last year. But some Maine residents think less of it should come from their state. They are challenging Poland Spring over rights to the state's spring water aquifers. Tom Bearden reports.
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| August 15, 2008
Satellite Imaging Program Records Darfur Destruction Geographers at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Office of Science and Human Rights are using satellite images to document destroyed villages in Darfur and other areas. Project director Lars Bromley describes the challenges of documenting human rights abuses using geospatial technologies.
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| August 15, 2008
Coastal 'Dead Zones' Continue to Spread, Study Finds Huge swaths of the world's oceans are too starved of oxygen to support shrimp, crabs, fish and other marine life, and these so-called dead zones are growing virtually unchecked, according to a new study.
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| August 14, 2008
Stone Age Graveyard Unearthed A paleontologist looking for dinosaur bones in the Sahara desert instead stumbled across the largest Stone Age graveyard ever found. View a slide show of the excavation.
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| August 14, 2008
Scientists Find Stone Age Burial Ground From Once-green Sahara A team of paleontologists inadvertently discovered the remains of a Stone Age cemetery in the Sahara desert, revealing clues about the lives of the hunter-gatherers who lived in the once-temperate region. A lead researcher details the finds.
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| August 8, 2008
World's Most Powerful Particle Accelerator Set to Launch Stretching 17 miles around, a mammoth machine that straddles the Swiss-Franco border will soon start launching the biggest experiments ever attempted in high-energy physics.
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| August 6, 2008
Justice Department, Unsealed Papers Outline Anthrax Case Against Dead Scientist The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that Army scientist Bruce Ivins "was the only person responsible" for the mailed anthrax attacks that killed five people and rattled the nation in 2001.
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| August 6, 2008
Air Pollution in China Atmospheric chemist Kenneth Rahn regularly travels to China to consult with scientists there about the country's air pollution problem. Rahn took your questions about pollution in Beijing during the run-up to the Olympic Games.
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| August 5, 2008
Endangered Gorilla 'Mother Lode' Uncovered in Republic of Congo A survey of the vast swamps and forests in the northern Republic of Congo has revealed 125,000 western lowland gorillas living there, more than double the previous known tally of the endangered animal.
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| August 1, 2008
Researchers Find Drug That Mimics Effects of Exercise Scientists announced this week that they've found a chemical compound that allows mice to run 44 percent longer on a treadmill -- without doing any exercise. Lead researcher Ronald Evans discusses the results and what they could mean for humans.
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| August 1, 2008
Scientists Create Stem Cells From Lou Gehrig's Disease Patients In a stem cell research breakthrough, scientists have reprogrammed skin cells from two elderly patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis -- also called ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease -- to act like stem cells.
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| August 1, 2008
FCC Rules Comcast Violated Internet Access Policy A divided Federal Communications Commission ruled Friday that Comcast Corp. violated federal policy when it blocked Internet traffic for some subscribers. The cable giant has been ordered to change the way it manages its network.
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| JULY July 31, 2008
California Science Center Moves to a 'Green' Home The California Academy of Sciences, founded in 1916, has a new home in a modern, energy-efficient building in San Francisco, aimed at raising public awareness of the natural world. Spencer Michels explores the unconventional museum amd the challenges of the move.
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| July 31, 2008
Scientists Find Liquid Lake on Saturn's Moon Researchers have spotted a liquid lake on Saturn's moon Titan, making that moon the first celestial body shown to have fluid on its surface. But this isn't a lake you'd want to swim in -- it's made up of ethane, one of the components of crude oil.
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| July 25, 2008
Oregon Mulls Shoring Up Schools Against Earthquakes Moved by the collapse of schools and deaths caused after a recent earthquake in China, leaders in Oregon debate the need to fortify their own schools against possible earthquake damage. Lee Hochberg reports on the debate.
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| July 25, 2008
Scientists Discover What Makes the Northern Lights Dance Scientists and stargazers alike have long been fascinated by the auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights -- the bands of light that stretch and sometimes dance across the night sky near the earth's poles.
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| July 23, 2008
Why can't the U.K.'s fuel efficient vehicles be sold in the U.S.? Paul Solman answers this question and many more in the "Business Desk."
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| July 18, 2008
Biotech Companies, Investors Look to Adult Stem Cell Research In June, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that it was investing $3 million in a small San Diego-based biotech startup called EyeCyte, which will work to develop adult stem cell-based treatments for eye diseases.
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| July 17, 2008
Gore Aims High on Renewable Energy Goal for U.S. Former Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore outlined a bold climate goal for the nation Thursday, challenging the U.S. to create every kilowatt of electricity through renewable energy sources within 10 years.
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| July 15, 2008
A Right to Online Privacy? How much information should online advertisers and Web site operators know about you? And how should they be able to use this information? Congress is trying to establish rules so that the rights of both online users and advertisers are protected.
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| July 11, 2008
Study: One-third of Coral Reef Species Face Extinction Nearly a third of the world's coral reef species face extinction, threatening entire ocean ecosystems.
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| July 10, 2008
Lunar Water Signs Found in Apollo Mission Rocks A new analysis of moon pebbles collected decades ago has found that the small stones contained traces of water, according to a report Thursday in the journal Nature by Brown University geologist Alberto Saal and his colleagues.
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| July 10, 2008
Alaskan Village Copes With Real-life Impacts of Global Climate Change In Shishmaref, Alaska -- a 600-person village 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle -- residents are feeling the effects of climate change: earlier sea ice melts and increasing storm surges. Tom Bearden reports on how the residents are coping.
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| July 9, 2008
Issue of Online Privacy Grows as Companies Track 'Digital Footprints' A Senate panel held a hearing Wednesday to investigate the growing issue of online privacy and what rights individuals should have to decide how their Web surfing history can be used by advertisers. Public policy advocates weigh the debate over online privacy.
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| July 9, 2008
G-8 Vows to Cut Emissions but Divisions Remain Leaders of the Group of Eight nations agreed Tuesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. But on Wednesday, a group of five emerging economies refused to sign the deal, saying they want more aggressive emissions cuts. A reporter examines the story.
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| July 8, 2008
G-8 OKs Plan to Halve Global Emissions by 2050 Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations agreed Tuesday on a target of cutting climate-changing gas emissions in half by 2050 -- an agreement lauded by the participants but rebuked by some environmentalists.
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| July 7, 2008
High Oil Costs May Advance Conservation Research Car owners have been wincing in recent months as the price of oil has shot up well over the once-unimaginable $100-per-barrel mark. But an economist at Carnegie Mellon University believes that skyrocketing oil prices are a good thing, and will lead to necessary innovations in conservation and green technologies.
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| July 1, 2008
Study: HIV Mortality Rates Continue to Drop as Treatments Improve More than a decade after antiretroviral treatments for HIV first debuted, HIV mortality rates have declined dramatically and they continue to drop in countries where patients have access to the drugs.
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| JUNE June 30, 2008
Ore. Discovery Challenges Beliefs About First Humans Until recently, most scientists believed that the first humans came to the Americas 13,000 years ago. But new archaeological findings from a cave in Oregon are challenging that assumption. Lee Hochberg of Oregon Public Television reports on the controversial discovery.
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| June 27, 2008
In Warming World, Plants Seek Higher Ground Rising temperatures are forcing plant species to migrate up mountains in search of a cooler climate, according to a new study of Alpine plants published Thursday in the journal Science.
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