Word: trait
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Each of these tests illustrates the psychological trait known as anchoring. Humans tend to latch on to one specific piece of information when making decisions, in this case the habits of the actor. The social environment is extremely influential. If this fellow study subject is going to take an above-average number of M&M's, so will I. Call it the "I'll have what she's having" effect. (See pictures of what makes you eat more food...
...however, Borlaug found a wheat strain with a unique genetic trait: the stalk became stubby, but the seed heads would stay large. When Borlaug transferred the gene into tropical wheat, he created a plant that could yield huge heads of grain while maintaining stable growth rates. Using Borlaug's seeds, farmers could produce four times as much wheat per acre. The discovery ignited the Green Revolution that helped eradicate famine in much of the world and earned Borlaug the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. His work saved hundreds of millions of lives, and today half the world eats grains descended from...
...this a particularly American trait? Is the rest of the world experiencing some form of the same malaise? I do think this is a disease of affluence. The problems we're facing are not the problems faced by people in the subsistence society. Furthermore, they're not problems faced by societies that have become geographically nomadic. In areas where people remain close to where they were reared, I think you have a very different array of problems and concerns. Our material lives are better than any human beings have enjoyed at any point in history...
...used a new technique, called RNA interference, to construct a genetic sequence that blocked the gossypol-producing enzyme in the seeds only. After succeeding in the lab, he began a test in a greenhouse to see if the genetically modified cotton plant would survive and pass on its new trait. Rathore's just-compiled data show that the modified cotton appears to be normal in every way other than the fact that it has instantly edible seeds. "What works in the greenhouse should hold true in the fields," he says...
...REMO, Italy — I don’t know if it’s because she once worked at Vogue, or if she simply possesses a Jewish-mother-knows-everything trait, but my mum always suggests the best places to shop. 20 years of experience have taught me to trust her advice, and so I confidently lead my dubious friend past the designer labels and expensive leather in San Remo, towards a little shop that seems to specialize in buckets and spades...