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Coffee and hydration
I sometimes feel like I should be drinking more water. After all, look at all those people drinking bottled water! I usually go for coffee! Either strong black or perhaps a nice Cappuccino. I just love it, and my doctor told me at one point that it was a ok way to get hydrated, as…
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“Super-Earths” May Be More Earth-y After All
Super-Earths are massive terrestrial planets that are fairly common in the Milky Way. While the name implies that these extrasolar planets would be similar to Earth, the name only refers to the mass and does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability. However, Northwestern University astrophysicist, Nicolas B. Cowan and Dorian Abbot, a…
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Spitting Sulfates!
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in one of the largest volcanic blasts of the 20th century. It spat up to 20 million tons of sulfur into the upper atmosphere, shielding the earth from the sun’s rays and causing global temperatures to drop by nearly half a degree Celsius in a single year.…
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Increase in Tourism Impacts Seashell Loss
Walking down the beach you see the perfect shell. You pick it up, put it in your pocket and decide to keep it to remind you of your trip to paradise. While different agencies, states, and countries have specific regulations on taking shells, vials of sand, or any other object from its natural environment, you…
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New compounds raise concern about health impacts of urban air and dietary exposure
The combustion and exhaust in cars and trucks along with the reactions that occur while cooking on grills both can contribute to air pollution and can produce carcinogens. However, Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered that the chemical reactions that occur from these processes produce novel compounds that were not previously known to exist…
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Down Under scorching: Australia experiences warmest year on record
Australia had its warmest year on record, with annual temperatures 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.16 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-1990 average, according to a new analysis from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
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I just knew dogs were good for you!
Who doesn’t love a cute puppy? Too bad they have to grow up to be a dog! Not really, dogs are loved too and many become an important part of a family. But does having a dog (or more than one) in the same house as an infant benefit the infant or put it at…
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U.S. Coast Guard Polar Star to the Rescue!
Maritime drama in the Southern Ocean continues! Maritime rescue teams have been getting a great deal of practice lately; this time the U.S. Coast Guard is attempting the rescue of the Russian research ship, Akademik Shokalskiy and now the Chinese icebreaker, Xue Long aka Snow Dragon in Chinese.
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Tracking tracks yields old story
Scientists in the UK have dated a set of footprints found in 1961 in the Chihuahuan desert in northeastern Mexico helping us understand the climate conditions in this area more than 7,000 years ago. The footprints were excavated while workman were building a road and placed in the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Coahuila. The…
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Volume of electronic waste set to rise by a third
The amount of electronic waste produced globally is set to grow by a third between 2012 and 2017, according to a forecast made by experts at a global partnership created to tackle e-waste.