Medical miracle: girl survives rabies

The first known case of a human being surviving rabies without vaccination has the medical world agog.

Third team of scientists finds Martian methane

Another team of scientists says it’s found methane in the Martian atmosphere. Life? As Drudge would say, “Developing…”

Software to spot art fakes?

This is cool: software that may be able to help authenticate art work. If it pans out, forgers are about to be put out of business.

Dealing with dust mites

Every once in a while, scientists come up with a suggestion for leading a healthier life that we can all appreciate–unlike all those restrictive recommendations we get most of the time. This week’s I-can-get-behind-that suggestion comes from a team of U.K. scientists researching dust mites, who recently announced that sleeping in and leaving the bed …

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Persistent coughs melt away with chocolate

You’ve got to like that headline, don’t you? Oh, sure, technically it’s just the theobromine in the chocolate that’s the active ingredient in suppressing coughs, and sure, Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, advises that “patients to speak to their family doctor before,,,treating their cough with chocolate,” but, still…it beats the …

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Could India be the next space-faring nation?

India could send a man into space within seven years if the Indian government gives the space agency the go-ahead.

Scanning for the birth pangs of black holes

NASA has launched a spacecraft called Swift to look for the gamma-ray bursts that might mark the birth of black holes.

Well-deserved awards

Ray Bradbury and Madeline L’Engle were among the recipients of the National Medal of Arts in Washington yesterday.

Born to run

Humans have evolved to run, scientists say–if running weren’t so important to us, we’d look more like apes. Maybe. But given our druthers, most of us would rather sit on our buns (themselves a running adaptation, apparently).

The placebo effect

Almost everyone has heard of the placebo effect–but it might surprise you to know that we’re still not sure how it works. A placebo (Latin for “I will please”) is a fake medical treatment–a pill made of sugar, for example, or an injection of saline solution. With no active ingredients, it shouldn’t have any effect …

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Which has more crime: Canada or the U.S.?

Here’s something you’d have trouble convincing most Canadians of, I’ll wager. From Roger Ebert’s Movie Answerman column: Q. In your Ebert & Roeper review of Michael Wilson’s ‘Michael Moore Hates America,’ you blurted out an erroneous opinion, expressing your doubts about the film’s claim that the Canadian crime rate is double the U.S. rate. I …

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How DD changed the world!

Hey, I could have written a href=”http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/15/dungeons_and_dragons_we_love_you/”this/a/1