How can a smart species be so dumb?
Was last year’s financial crisis a chance event? Or was it the product of 35 million years of evolution?
Laurie Santos’ research suggests that some of the bad choices made on Wall Street and in the mortgage business may have been deeply rooted in the basic nature of the human species.
Santos, a professor at Yale University, [...]
3.6-magnitude earthquake strikes
Henrietta Lacks’ Unmarked Grave Given a Headstone
After 59 years in an unmarked grave, Henrietta Lacks was honored with a headstone for her resting place. Friends and family gathered for a small ceremony in Clover, Virginia where Lacks has been buried on a family plot since 1951, reports the Virginia Pilot..
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Vick recipient of Block Courage Award
Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick, who joined the Eagles this season after serving 18 months in federal prison for his role in a dogfighting ring, has been named recipient of the team’s Ed Block Courage Award.
Given annually, the award honors NFL players who exemplify commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. Recipients are selected in [...]
32 planets discovered outside solar system
Thirty-two planets have been discovered outside Earth’s solar system through the use of a high-precision instrument installed at a Chilean telescope, an international team announced Monday.
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Found: Firm place to stand outside solar system
Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there’s a firm place to stand — if only it weren’t so broiling hot.
As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system. But they all have been gas balls or can’t be proven to [...]
New giant rat species discovered
Scientists have discovered a new species of giant rat in a remote rainforest in Papua New Guinea.
Measuring 82 centimeters (32.2 inches) from nose to tail and weighing around 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds), the species is thought to be one of the largest rats ever to be found.
The discovery was made by a team from the [...]
NASA falling short of asteroid-detection goals
Without more funding, NASA will not meet its goal of tracking 90 percent of all deadly asteroids by 2020, according to a report released today by the National Academy of Sciences.
The agency is on track to soon be able to spot 90 percent of the potentially dangerous objects that are at least a kilometer (.6 [...]
First U.S. face transplant recipient offers thanks
In 2004, a bullet ripped away Connie Culp’s nose, cheeks and upper jaw. Metal fragments sprayed into her skull and stripped her face away, leaving nothing except for her eyes, her chin and forehead.
Without her nose, she could not smell. She breathed through a tracheostomy — a surgical opening in her neck. Without lips, she [...]
Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet
In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a [...]
