Word: benign
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Hawkings portray the universe as harmonious and largely benign. Super-novas are fireworks for George's entertainment; black holes are harmless. But our present knowledge of the universe suggests that it is, in fact, a desolate and often violent expanse in which humankind plays an inconsequential role. Deep study of the cosmos, while affirming the accidental beauty of life, would seem to reinforce its futility rather than its significance. So are the Hawkings concealing the true nature of the universe from their young readers...
...countries extend one hand in an embrace, they keep the other behind their back, clenching a gun. Despite Beijing's attempts to reassure other governments, its growing economic and military might frightens its more open neighbors. Given China's opaque politics, leaders still cannot predict whether Beijing will prove benign or threatening. Average people, too, reflect this mistrust. In the latest survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, a majority of people in only two Asian nations surveyed had favorable opinions of China, and one of those two was ... China...
...therapy protect brain function. Of the study participants, who were all matched for age, 813 women had one ovary removed and 676 women had both ovaries removed, while the 1,472 women in the control group had both ovaries intact. Half of the women had oophorectomies because of a benign condition, such as infection or cysts, and the other half had their ovaries removed prophylactically to prevent ovarian cancer. Lead investigator Dr. Walter Rocca, a neurologist and epidemiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and his team found that compared with women who had kept both ovaries, the risk...
...instance, the most prized sushi fish in Japan, is already imperiled. And the bluefin may only be the first to disappear: as Corson notes, scientists have estimated that all of the world's ocean fish will be gone by 2050. The sushi boom may represent the triumph of benign globalization, but its net effect will be emptier seas...
...personality trait, shyness probably ranks as one of the more benign characteristics that someone can possess, but new research suggests that at least some forms of shyness may have violent, and often deadly, consequences...