Word: larger
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Since as much as 40% of a worker's compensation comes in the form of fringe benefits, the issue is partly one of economic equity: Is it fair to provide more for a married employee than for a gay colleague who does the same work? There is also a larger moral issue. Health plans, pension programs and inheritance laws are designed to accommodate the traditional family. But nowadays, only 27% of U.S. households consist of two parents with children, down from 40% in 1970. Is the goal of encouraging traditional families therefore obsolete? Is it discriminatory...
Medical applications are also being rapidly developed. Researchers at Maryland's Johns Hopkins have made a pill slightly larger than a daily vitamin supplement that has a silicon thermometer and the electronics necessary to broadcast instant temperature readings to a recording device. By having a patient swallow the pill, doctors can pinpoint worrisome hot spots anywhere within the digestive tract. Future "smart pills" may transmit information about heart rates, stomach acidity or neural functions. Says Russell Eberhart, program manager at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory: "This could change the way we diagnose and monitor patients...
Working with microscopic machines presents special challenges to scientists. Not only do they risk inhaling their tools or scattering them with a sneeze, but they also have to cope with a new set of physical laws. The problem of friction, for instance, looms ever larger as parts get smaller. The tiniest dust speck can seem like a boulder. Rotating a hair-width dynamo through air molecules, says AT&T's Gabriel, "is like trying to spin gears in molasses...
...blue band gets bigger, wider. The crowds larger, more rowdy...
...task which we all like to think does not come naturally to people. The main concern of military training is to prepare recruits for this by dehumanizing the enemy and dehumanizing the recruit by making her or him function as only one component of a larger machine. He or she must wear a uniform, follow orders, perform drills, honor rank and the like. Given the goals, tolerance and sympathy for fellow humans are not encouraged...