Word: benignity
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...transplants, which are now completely acceptable. Every time we use medicine to cure a disease or prevent a death, we go against nature--willingly. Admittedly, sex selection for family balancing cures no disease. In fact, though, no form of babymaking solves a medical problem. Sex selection, moreover, is medically benign in comparison with most reproductive technologies. No surgery is involved, and the entire process can theoretically be performed without a physician. Children born through this process can't be distinguished from other children...
...potentially catastrophic consequences for our civilization should a large comet or asteroid strike the earth." The 7829 Jaroff has a diameter of 8 to 10 km--about the size of the comet that killed off the dinosaurs. He points out that his asteroid is so far considered benign, meaning it does not threaten to intercept the earth's orbit anytime soon. Needless to say, Jaroff is quite pleased to be acknowledged by the IAU and to gain this bit of immortality: "I've never had anything named after me before, not even my children...
PEANUTS Planes to have nut-free zones to protect the allergic. Like the rest of airline food was so benign...
Fortunately, all lies are not created equal. St. Augustine enumerated nine categories of lying, several of which would go into the category we call white lies. Such benign falsehoods make the world go round. No. 6, for example, is a lie that harms no one but helps someone else. This is when you tell your friend who is getting chemotherapy for breast cancer that she looks marvelous...
...problem indeed. Of all the bacteria that bloom in the body, E. coli is usually one of the most beneficial, helping to metabolize food in the intestine. In 1982, however, scientists discovered that E. coli wasn't always so benign. That year 26 people in Oregon were felled by a violent infection and intestinal disorder, and when doctors analyzed the bug behind the illness, they found that it was all but indistinguishable from ordinary E. coli, with but a small exception: this breed of the bacterium contained a few strands of genetic reweaving that cause it to produce a powerful...