Word: vitalness
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While the military's actual war-fighting computers are generally deemed secure, those supporting other vital areas--such as payroll, personnel, transportation and spare parts--are handled by poorly guarded Pentagon computers linked by scantily protected public-communications channels. The military's computers are probed by outsiders close to 500 times a day, Pentagon experts believe. But only about 25 of those are detected, and only two or three of those detected are reported to security officials. This penetrability is a legacy of computers designed for ease of use and accessibility to the Internet (itself a Pentagon creation). The toughest...
Essentially docile, bats play a vital role in maintaining ecological balance. For one thing, they protect crops from marauding insects. The 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats that roost in Bracken Cave near San Antonio, Texas, from spring to fall consume 250 tons of insects every night as they swarm to altitudes of 10,000 ft. Farmers are not the only ones who benefit. A single little brown bat can speedily clear a suburban backyard of pesky mosquitoes, lapping up 600 bugs an hour...
...success adds fuel to yet another debate about deep-sea exploration. Some scientists insist that remote-controlled, robotic craft are no substitute for having humans on the scene. Says MBARI's Robison: "Whether you're a geologist or a biologist, being able to see with your own eyes is vital. That's a squiffy-sounding rationalization, but it's true." There are other advantages too, he notes. "The human eyes are connected to the best portable computer there is [the brain]. And when things go wrong, a person can often fix them faster, more easily and more efficiently than...
...fatter an animal is, the more leptin its cells should make. Normal mice then respond to weight gain by turning out more leptin. As a result, their appetites slacken and their energy consumption speeds up. But the obese mice cannot produce leptin, so their brains never receive this vital message. "These animals," marvels Friedman, "get fat because they think they're starving, and then when we give them the protein, they get thin because they think they...
...primitive creature may take apart an internal-combustion engine to study it but still never understand how it works--because its secret lies external to it, in the principle that explosions exert pressure. This insight is vital to understanding the engine. Hence it is no mystery why scientists haven't grasped the brain: they have been studying it solely on its own terms, much the way a primitive creature studies the engine. In my opinion, the answer lies outward. Scientists should ask, What real-world principle is the brain designed to exploit? TOM SALES Somerset, New Jersey...