Word: steeping
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...wasn't until refrigerator-size boulders began hurtling down from above that the scientists sitting in an Anchorage, Alaska, control room started to get seriously worried. Until then the robot known as Dante II had successfully negotiated a steep, muddy descent and ambled unconcernedly through hot steam and poisonous gases. But even a 10-ft.-tall, 1,700-lb. automaton has its limits, and multiton chunks of rock moving at high speed were beyond Dante's. "That big one," said Carnegie Mellon University robotics expert John Bares, pointing nervously at a video screen after a rockslide, "would've wiped...
...important as this news was to volcano experts and the people of Anchorage, just 80 miles from Mount Spurr, the volcano study was perhaps the least noteworthy part of the robot's mission. Despite the final slipup, which toppled Dante and left it stranded on the steep mountain slope, the 10-day trek went a long way toward proving the potential of a technology that could let humans explore a wide range of sites too hazardous to visit in person -- other volcanoes, deep caves, the barren wastes of Antarctica, the ocean floor and even the surfaces of the moon...
...most dramatic decline is in eastern Germany where the rate, already relatively low at 12 per 1,000 in 1989, has plummeted to about 6.5 per 1,000. There have been two unusually steep drops: the first in August 1990, a revealing nine months after the fall of the Berlin Wall; the second in the summer of 1991, nine months after German unification. Plainly, people have been too worried about their future to make the long-term investment in hope required to start a family...
...could the natural riches of Vu Quang remain unknown to outsiders for so long, especially given the crowded conditions in much of Vietnam and the relentless deforestation taking place? Part of the explanation lies in the region's steep, ragged terrain and exceptionally wet, sweltering weather conditions. The mountainous spine that divides Vietnam and Laos traps moisture evaporated from the South China Sea, creating an unusually stable but inhospitable climate. Incessant rains during the rainy season and dripping fogs during the dry season nurture a slick algae that add a treacherous coating to rocks and other surfaces. That may explain...
...than their counterparts in the U.S. who have better health care and a higher standard of living. But peasant families tend to have two or three children in Mexico City, while those who immigrate to the U.S. average four or five children. In crowded Mexico City each child imposes steep costs on a family, while in the U.S. welfare payments and other social safety nets buffer those costs. These skewed incentives convey similar signals to poor young women in America's inner cities, who in many cases see no reason to defer having children...