Word: damped
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...silk for one necktie. "And you probably wouldn't want to wear a necktie made of spider silk anyway," laughs zoologist John Gosline of the University of British Columbia. Reason: when wet, spider silk contracts 50%, a property that, in a necktie at least, might prove decidedly unpleasant on damp days. Armed with the tools of molecular biology, however, scientists can learn how spiders construct their silk and then apply those lessons to the design of other fibers. "After all," says Gosline, "we do not aim to copy nature directly, but to adapt her designs and processes...
...mentioned the $145 billion figure, some of his aides began backing off, saying the important thing was simply to get the number moving down, and giving the impression that the President might settle for $70 billion to $100 billion. That now appears to have been a game intended to damp down expectations in the financial markets and among pundits, so that they could be pleasantly surprised when the original target was reinstated. "We are still pushing toward 145 ((billion dollars))," says a top official. "It could be 135, it could be 142, it could be 138. Look...
...areas of the American West and Southwest as well as parts of northern Mexico and Central and South America. Face masks offer only limited protection against the infinitesimal spores, and efforts to design a vaccine have yet to succeed. The fungus multiplies dramatically whenever the soil becomes damp after a protracted dry spell. Swept into the air by winds, construction equipment, even the passing feet of farm workers, the spores can travel up to hundreds of miles on the surface of dust particles. Central California's six-year drought, which has been interspersed with warm, heavy rains, as well...
...There's a strong argument that all of the country's great universities are in places where the winters are bad. The damp winters like those in Cambridge keep people indoors studying...
POLITICAL RENEGADE PAT BUCHANAN RAISED HIS UMBRELLA AGAINST the gray, damp sky last week as he surveyed the line of guests filing into the White House for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony. "The last roll call," he said...