Word: bacterias
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even more to their astonishment, researchers discovered that biology played an important role in the rock-dissolving process. By poring over slices of limestone under microscopes, scientists found the fossil remains of primitive bacteria that had thrived in the once hostile environment. Using sulfur instead of sunlight as their source of energy, these organisms actually bolstered the acid's power to etch rock. Descendants of these strange microbes have recently been found and are being studied at Lechuguilla Cave, not far from Carlsbad...
...issue is the balance between two very different types of research: basic and applied. Basic scientists pursue knowledge for its own sake. They may study the sex lives of bacteria growing in Petri dishes or use giant accelerators to smash protons together to see what kinds of subatomic debris come out. Applied scientists, in contrast, have a social goal in mind. They take the knowledge gained from basic science and try to apply it to solving a problem or creating a new technology. They may use their understanding of light waves to construct an optical computer or test a drug...
...technological advances as new non-toxic solvents for washing aircraft engines, and plastic granules to replace grit for blasting paint off aircraft fuselage parts. Baking soda is being tested as a nonlethal paint remover, and scientists are also investigating the potential for lasers to do the job. Noting that bacteria can strip paint from buried tin cans, scientists are examining the feasibility of getting microorganisms to do the same job for aircraft fuselages...
...HUMAN IMMUNE SYSTEM IS A POWERFUL DEfense against assaults by bacteria and viruses from outside the body, but now scientists may have found a way to turn it against a homegrown assailant: cancer. A research group at Stanford University has developed a vaccine that stimulates the body to fight B-cell lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system that strikes 20,000 Americans every year and is especially hard to treat. They did it by removing cancerous cells from nine patients and treating the cells to make them more irritating to the immune system. Then they were reinjected under...
Wilson doesn't base his argument on a simplemessage of species appreciation. After all, thebeetles and bees and bacteria will be fine in ahundred million years. Humans, however, may not bearound to enjoy them. Wilson argues in his bookthat there is a limited amount of usable matter inthe world and humans are consuming an amazingamount of it in a very inefficient and destructivemanner. We are destroying the very ecosystemswhich are vital to our survival and overpopulatingan earth whose resources are already strained. Thespecific answers Wilson provides may require us torelate the wonders of our childhoods to modern daychallenges...