Word: culprit
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Within a few weeks after the first cases appeared, scientists suspected that the culprit was a variety of hantavirus, closely related to pathogens already known to exist in Europe and Asia. Researchers then established that the virus was carried by wild deer mice, and residents of the Southwest and West began taking special precautions to minimize their contact with the rodents. Finally, just over a week ago, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and the Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Detrick, Maryland, reported that both institutions had independently isolated the virus and grown it under laboratory...
...fairer description is "foul, acidic, bitter, tooth-staining, heartburn-causing and chemically addictive." That applies to "Dota Blend" just as accurately as to Dunkin Donuts' 50-cent special. It is instructive to note that for decades, conventional wisdom had it that coffee caused ulcers. (In fact, the real culprit was H. pylori bacteria.) If coffee doesn't rot out your gut, it tastes like it should...
Princeton's superstar tailback Keith Elias managed just 59 yards on 15 carries as the Tigers fell behind early and took to the air to catch up, but the real culprit was turnovers: the Tigers fumbled the ball eight times and lost five of them. Five of those turnovers came on the snap from center...
After analyzing ancient gas bubbles trapped in amber, geologists have identified a new culprit for the disappearance of the dinosaurs: bad air. The theorists calculate that the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere fell from 35% to 28% over the course of 500,000 years and suggest that the dinosaurs' respiratory systems were unable to adapt to the change...
Financial considerations was the other culprit that determined these new looks...