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TODAY: Asteroid Narrowly Misses Earth
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Murder May Spread Like Flu
Murder is contagious and may spread like the flu, new research suggests.
The researchers relied on the same techniques public-health officials use to track the spread of diseases, but applied them to the spread of homicide in Newark, N.J., over a 26-year span from 1982 to 2008.
And just as in other epidemics, certain neighborhoods were more susceptible than others. Diverse, immigrant-rich communities looked to be protected against homicide’s spread in the research, while the poorest neighborhoods were more vulnerable. These findings suggest communities could inoculate themselves against murder waves by addressing the underlying risk factors, said study co-author April Zeoli, a criminal justice researcher at Michigan State University.
“People speak about violence, crime and homicide as being contagious. The idea is that violence begets violence,” Zeoli told LiveScience. [The History of Human Aggression]
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Sally K. Ride, First American Woman In Space, Dies At 61
Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel into space, died Monday at the age of 61, the Associated Press reported.
The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, according to a statement posted on the website of Sally Ride Science, a science education company she founded in 2001. She had been battling the disease for 17 months.
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Someone, somewhere was hired to make illustrations of dinos having sex. Now you don’t have to wonder! You’re welcome!
See the full slideshow, in all its strange glory, here. -
Happy Birthday to Nikola Tesla, a man truly before his time
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When a dying star erupts…
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And then all the scientists to the media were like
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Texas Professors Respond to New Research on Gay Parenting
Mark Regnerus claims to have produced the first rigorous scientific evidence showing that same sex families harm children. As a family sociologist at the University of Texas, I am disturbed by his irresponsible and reckless representation of social science research, and furious that he is besmirching my university to lend credibility to his “findings.”
The recent study by my colleague Mark Regnerus on gay parenting purports to show that young adults with a parent who ever had a same-sex relationship turn out worse than young adults with continuously married heterosexual parents (who are, in addition, biologically related to their children). He calls this latter group the “gold standard for parenting.”
But in making this claim, he has violated the “gold standard for research.” Regnerus’ study is bad science. Among other errors, he made egregious yet strategic decisions in selecting particular groups for comparison.
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How do you make a rat laugh? Tickle it, of course.
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Beam Me Up, Scotty
Scotty has finally been beamed up. The ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on the 1960s television series “Star Trek,” were launched to space this morning (May 22) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The unmanned Falcon 9 blasted off at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT) from here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the Dragon capsule filled with cargo bound for the International Space Station. Also packed aboard the rocket was a secondary payload carrying remains from 308 people, including Doohan and Mercury program astronaut Gordon Cooper, according to ABC News and Reuters.
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TONIGHT: Solar Storm May Bring Awesome Auroras
“Skywatchers at all latitudes should be alert for auroras,” astronomer Tony Phillips said.
A massive solar storm may spark an intense northern lights display for skywatchers at high latitudes tonight and Thursday (March 8) as a wave of charged particles reach the planet.
More here: http://huff.to/AEGkEc
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WATCH: AGNES Suit Ages You 50 Years In 15 Mins
HuffPost Science’s Cara Santa Maria dons a special suit created by MIT scientists to simulate 50 years of added age, plus a few illnesses. We gotta say, watching Cara struggle to make her way around NYC and the HuffPost newsroom in this suit is pretty priceless.
More here: http://huff.to/zAoTVW -
Robot Fish Lead Real Ones To Safety (VIDEO)
More here: http://huff.to/yCgsYY
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The South reigns as the sleepiest region of America.
Study shows the sleepiest states
The largest contributors to sleepless nights were mental health, access to health care, race/ethnicity and weather patterns.
