Word: founds
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...molecular biology's current pace, it will be something like that. By then scientists will have decoded the entire human genome--all 140,000 or so genes that largely say who we are and which of 4,000 diseases our flesh is heir to. They will also have found exactly where common disease-causing errors lie along the genome's long, interlocked chains...
...young mammals (including humans), convert fat into heat rather than storing it. That's crucial in newborns, whose temperature-regulation systems aren't fully formed. As we age, the brown cells become inactive and the white, which convert dietary fat to body fat, take over. Several research teams have found that by reactivating the brown cells in an adult animal with medication, they can burn off fat dramatically. Now the doctors are looking for a genetic switch that can do the same for humans...
...seems likely that for a while at least we'll keep getting fatter. We can't undo evolution, and we haven't found a way to fool Mother Nature--yet. But before the 21st century is half over, with the body's fat-centric metabolism laid bare and the ability to manipulate genes part of medicine's standard tool kit, the trend may finally stop. Chubbiness may not disappear, but it could become optional. A future without Richard Simmons' commercials would be a wonderful future indeed...
Scientists have found a type of bacterium that is virtually indestructible. It's called Deinococcus radiodurans ("terrible berry that survives radiation"). This bug can live in a blast of gamma rays that is the equivalent of thousands of lethal human doses--radiation so strong it cracks glass. Scientists have found "dead" radiodurans spores in Antarctica that have baked in UV light for 100 years. Yet when placed in a nutrient bath, the bug's DNA reassembles itself and proliferates. If radiodurans genes could be put into anthrax, they might produce an anthrax that's virtually impossible to kill. From...
...good news in one respect. Burning coal has made the Chinese people (somewhat) warm in winter for the first time in their history. But multiply Zhenbing's story by China's huge population, and you understand why 9 of the world's 10 most air-polluted cities are found in China and why nearly 1 of every 3 deaths there is linked to the horrific condition of the air and water...