Word: deviling
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They're six healthy Tasmanian devils, seemingly identical to the rest of their kind. Yet they're being kept at a secret location in Tasmania, and scientists are calling them the Special Six. What makes these devils different, and has their keepers so hopeful, is their genetic makeup. A virulently infectious cancer has wiped out more than half of their marsupial species, and so far only one devil has shown signs of resisting the disease. Starting this week, the Special Six will be injected with tumor cells to see if they can do the same. If their immune systems attack...
...Since hideous facial lesions were first spotted on Tasmanian devils in 1996, the species has been in freefall. At current rates, it's predicted that one of Australia's most unusual animals could vanish from the wild within three years. Spread by biting during mating and one of only three communicable cancers ever seen, devil facial tumor disease has baffled scientists. And as it rages through 60% of the devils' habitat, introduced pests like feral cats and foxes have been taking the place of Tasmania's largest native predator...
...Sydney University geneticist Kathy Belov admits that until recently she thought the species, soon to be officially listed as endangered, was doomed. Her team's work on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes - which activate an immune response in all vertebrates - confirmed late last year that devils have so little genetic diversity that their immune systems simply don't treat the tumor cells as a threat. That was the grim news from the island's east, where the disease has hit hardest. But it now seems that devils from the more isolated west could be different. It's a distinction that...
...election campaign has been dirty, and the streets of Asuncion are plastered with lurid propaganda. One poster depicts the Colorados as a plague of mosquitoes that need eradicating, while another portrays Lugo as the Antichrist with devil's horns and a pitchfork. Lugo's campaign has accused the Colorados of tampering with ballots - and campaign manager Lopez says he fully expects Lugo to lose "between 70,000 and 100,000 votes" to fraud. Newspapers, for example, have published the names of long-dead Paraguayans who are still registered to vote, and international observers have warned of a "tense electoral climate...
...presence of guns, the cruelty of the culture, the culture of cruelty? School shootings are like plane crashes, rare but riveting for the primitive fears they evoke. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the executioners of Columbine, gave that fear a face: cold-blooded, calculating, seeking immortality, dancing with the devil. They gave our kids the awful shorthand: You're not going to do a Columbine? Williams' friends asked. They even frisked him that morning before school...