Word: worm
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Xinmin is a village on the verge of extinction. Nearly every resident of this swampy, 1,000-strong hamlet in the central Chinese province of Hunan is infected by the parasitic worm Schistosoma japonicum. It spreads through the bloodstream, lays eggs in the liver and bladder, wriggles into the brain or embeds itself in the spine. Renal failure and paralysis may follow; death is painful and untimely. That is the grim fate awaiting Xinmin villager Wang Zengkun. The 45-year-old rice farmer first experienced the stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea that signal schistosomiasis three years ago. For a while...
...China slashed the number of victims to 2.5 million in 1975. By 1988, that had shrunk even further, to 400,000. So proud was the Great Helmsman that he wrote a poem, called "Sending Away the God of Plague," commemorating the People's Republic's fight against a tiny worm...
...nematode is comprised of 1,000 cells and has 302 neurons, each connected to each other the same way. Utilizing the exactness of the laser, researchers can now sever precise axon connections—akin to cutting wires in a circuit—to note behavioral changes within the worm, according to Assistant Professor of Physics Aravinthan Samuel...
...always say, 'As far as we know,' no one has written a virus or worm that can bring down all the communications. But that opening disclaimer is very important." --Charles Palmer...
...Internet browsers. Microsoft earned its market share, but with that dominance comes the vulnerability of what computer geeks call monoculture. The near monopoly undermines security by making everyone's computers susceptible to the same flaws (you need only note the $2 billion in losses caused by the Sobig worm to understand). Critics point to parallels in the natural world to explain what happens when life becomes too dependent on a single source. "The Irish potato famine killed a country. The boll weevil killed an economy," Geer said. "It is self-evident that the desktops of the world are clones ripe...