Word: clumpings
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...spores to be used as a weapon, they need to be dried and processed into a stable, powder-like form that will disperse in the air. The most refined bacterial spores form a fine, white dust. Cruder preparations have a brownish tint and are heavier; these spores tend to clump together and drop to the ground, making them less effective terror weapons...
...manufacturing sufficient quantities of any bacteria in a stable form is a technical and scientific challenge; plague bugs, for example, degrade within hours when exposed to the sun, and anthrax spores tend to clump together in humid conditions. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo sprayed anthrax and botulism eight times over parts of Tokyo without effect...
...next took on the mystery of cosmic structure, why galaxies clump together in huge clusters rather than spread uniformly throughout space. He and a colleague suggested that the reason was knots of warped space-time called "topological defects." The idea was brilliant, but observations proved it quite wrong. Many scientists would have fought to save their pet theory. Spergel cheerfully declared it dead and moved...
...given way to human landscapes, my mental images of Widener have become daguerrotypes, gauzy and greyscale. A shot of the pillars at night, spilling down and across a frozen Yard. A slow panning of the benefactor's full name carved into stone. The inviting wasteland of snowy steps. A clump of visitors posed longingly or curiously on the very top step, taking photographs of each other...
...that one over there, he points with his cigarette. "Those local ones we call bitches. They always waiting here for short service." Short service? "It's according to how long it takes you to ejaculate," he explains. "We go to the 'bush bedroom' over there [waving at a clump of trees 100 yds. away] or sometimes in the truck. Short service, that costs you 20 rands [$2.84]. They know we drivers always got money...