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Smriti Rao is a contributing writer for DiscoBlog and 80beats.
Sources
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Discover Magazine: 234 articles
Timeline
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April 2010: 68 articles
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March 2010: 69 articles
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February 2010: 57 articles
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January 2010: 40 articles
Articles
by
Smriti Rao
[1–25
of
234
articles]
- Turn a Man Into Mush With a Nasal Spray of Pure Oxytocin
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 30 April 2010
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- Who ever thought that couples could bond over nasal spray? But new research shows that a nasal spray containing the “love hormone” oxytocin helped make regular guys more empathetic and less gruff. Oxytocin is the hormone that strengthens the bond ...
- Piezoelectric Promise: Charge a Touch-Screen by Poking It With Your Finger
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 30 April 2010
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- Imagine a day in the future when you can charge your cell phone using your sneakers, or charge a touch-screen device merely by rolling up the flexible screen. New devices that take advantage of the piezoelectric effect–the tendency of some materials ...
- How to Save Gorillas: Turn People on to Snail Farming
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 30 April 2010
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- The critically endangered Cross River gorilla is under constant threat from poachers in this poor nation, as poachers kill the animals for their bushmeat or sell them illegally to traffickers in the exotic pet trade. With just 300 Cross River ...
- James Cameron to Design a 3D Camera for Next-Gen Mars Rover
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 30 April 2010
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- After entertaining the entire planet with the movie Avatar, director James Cameron is now taking his expertise to space–specifically to Mars. He’s helping NASA build a 3D camera for its next rover, Curiosity.
- Legendary Giant Earthworm Finally Appears, Disappoints Everybody
- Discover Magazine · Thursday, 29 April 2010
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- It’s an earthworm so mysterious, people compare it to the Loch Ness Monster. Rarely sighted since the 1980′s, the giant Palouse earthworm was said to grow almost three feet long, smell like lilies, and spit at predators. It was so elusive, that some ...
- Need to Find the Big Dipper? There’s an App for That
- Discover Magazine · Thursday, 29 April 2010
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- There used to be a time when you could easily impress a date by pointing to the night sky and dreamily rattling off names of major stars, constellations, and the like. Now, instead of cramming your head full of names or making up stuff as you go ...
- How to Cook Steak in Your Beer Cooler
- Discover Magazine · Thursday, 29 April 2010
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- After years of serving as your faithful companion to ball games and keeping the brewskies frosty at backyard barbecues, your trusty beer cooler now has a new assignment–cooking up a gourmet meal, sous-vide style.
- Feds Green-Light the Nation’s First Offshore Wind Farm
- Discover Magazine · Wednesday, 28 April 2010
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- The Obama administration reaffirmed its commitment to clean energy sources today by giving the green light to the controversial Cape Wind project, clearing the way for 130 wind turbines to be built off the coast of Cape Cod. The wind farm will be ...
- World’s Biggest Telescope Will Perch on a Mountain in the World’s Driest Desert
- Discover Magazine · Wednesday, 28 April 2010
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- Plans for the world’s largest telescope just took a major step forward. Researchers have selected a site for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT): It will sit on the Cerro Armazones mountain in central Chile’s Atacama Desert. ...
- Fierce, Territorial Llamas Act as Bouncers for a Wildlife Refuge
- Discover Magazine · Wednesday, 28 April 2010
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- The guys guarding the velvet rope at downtown’s hottest nightspot may be tough–but at least they don’t spit like these llama bouncers.
- Scout’s Honor: I’m Only Playing This Video Game to Earn My Merit Badge
- Discover Magazine · Wednesday, 28 April 2010
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- At first glance, it seems like every young Boy Scout’s dream come true: a merit badge for video games.
- Elephants Emit Special “Bee Rumble” to Warn Others About Marauding Bugs
- Discover Magazine · Tuesday, 27 April 2010
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- When it comes to the relationship between bees and African elephants, size does not matter. The massive pachyderms are terrified of bees, which can painfully sting elephants around their eyes and inside their trunks. Baby elephants are the most ...
- Do You Eat Chocolate to Relieve Depression–or Does Chocolate Make You Depressed?
- Discover Magazine · Tuesday, 27 April 2010
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- Scientists have long suspected that a link exists between mood and chocolate, as studies (done primarily with women) have suggested that eating a chocolate bar temporarily banished the blues. Now a study has brought new complexity to the issue with ...
- Stem Cell-Powered Worm Doesn’t Age, Can Grow a New Head
- Discover Magazine · Tuesday, 27 April 2010
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- For the tiny flatworm, regeneration of missing body parts is a piece of cake. Someone chopped its head off? No problem! It grows a brand new one in about seven days, complete with a spanking new brain with all the right circuits and connections. (As ...
- All Aboard the Beef Train–Amtrak Debuts a Train Running on Beef Biofuel
- Discover Magazine · Tuesday, 27 April 2010
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- If you thought a cow was good only for its milk and meat, then we’d have you know that somewhere between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, Texas, there is an Amtrak train chugging along on moo-power.
- How Chimps Mourn Their Dead: Reactions to Death Caught on Film
- Discover Magazine · Monday, 26 April 2010
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- Do chimpanzees truly understand the concept of death–and do they grieve for their dead? Two separate studies due to be published in journal Current Biology suggest that chimps may have emotional responses to death that aren’t so different from ...
- Lost iPhone Case Heats Up: Cops Seize Gizmodo Editor’s Computers
- Discover Magazine · Monday, 26 April 2010
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- Tech website Gizmodo’s Jason Chen may have scored the industry’s biggest scoop this month, with the exclusive on Apple’s next generation iPhone 4G, but nothing could have prepared him for the aftermath.
- A Tropical, Fatal Fungus Gains a Foothold in the Pacific Northwest
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 23 April 2010
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- A rare but potentially life-threatening tropical fungus is spreading through the Pacific Northwest, researchers have reported.
- First Full Face Transplant–Jaw, Nose, Teeth, Etc–Declared a Success
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 23 April 2010
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- A hospital in Barcelona has announced that it has successfully carried out the world’s first full face transplant.
- Fast Food News: It Boosts Impatience, and What Trumps KFC’s Double Down?
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 23 April 2010
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- It’s a common nutritional fail–you pledge to make a nice, fresh home-cooked meal, but get impatient and opt for fast food instead. Now, new research suggests that ‘we are how we eat’ and that the mere thought of fast food can result in general ...
- A Novel Geoengineering Idea: Increase the Ocean’s Quotient of Whale Poop
- Discover Magazine · Friday, 23 April 2010
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- Scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division have found that whale poop contains huge amounts of iron and when it is released into the waters, the iron-rich feces become food for phytoplankton. Phytoplankton absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, ...
- Borneo’s Wild New Species: A “Ninja Slug,” the World’s Longest Bug, & More
- Discover Magazine · Thursday, 22 April 2010
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- A flying frog that changes colors, a stick insect that’s a foot and a half long, and a “ninja slug” that shoots “love darts.” These are among the 120 new species discovered or described over the past three years on the lush island of Borneo–the ...
- Borneo’s Wild New Species: A “Ninja Slug,” the World’s Longest Bug, & More
- Discover Magazine · Thursday, 22 April 2010
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- This giant stick insect species found in the Heart of Borneo measures almost 23 inches, making it the world’s longest insect. But despite its size, very little is known about this insect, which was described for the first time in 2008. Named ...
- How to Make People Believe in ESP: Tell Them Scientists Think It’s Bogus
- Discover Magazine · Thursday, 22 April 2010
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- Pity the poor scientists–no matter how hard they try to convince the public that science is one of the few things you can trust in this crazy, mixed-up world, public faith in science is still tough to come by.
- The Downfall of Hitler Parodies: Videos Removed From YouTube in Copyright Action
- Discover Magazine · Thursday, 22 April 2010
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- This week, YouTube began trying to obliterate one of the most popular internet memes of all time, the Downfall parodies featuring an enraged Adolf Hitler, after a copyright claim by the German production house that owns the movie’s rights.
