Word: played
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...opened the way, alas, to the quantum theories of Werner Heisenberg and others who showed how the wave-particle duality implies a randomness or uncertainty in nature and that particles are affected simply by observing them. This made Einstein uncomfortable. As he famously and frequently insisted, "God does not play dice." (Retorted his friendly rival Niels Bohr: "Einstein, stop telling God what to do.") He spent his later years in a failed quest for a unified theory that would explain what appeared to be random or uncertain...
Einstein was horrified by this random, unpredictable element in the basic laws and never fully accepted quantum mechanics. His feelings were expressed in his famous God-does-not-play-dice dictum. Most other scientists, however, accepted the validity of the new quantum laws because they showed excellent agreement with observations and because they seemed to explain a whole range of previously unaccounted-for phenomena. They are the basis of modern developments in chemistry, molecular biology and electronics and the foundation of the technology that has transformed the world in the past half-century...
...large thefts of explosives over the past week in Flagstaff, Arizona and Fresno, California. But rather than simply taking precautions and waiting for the bad guys to make their move, the authorities are taking the offensive. And that forces at least some of the terrorists to play defense...
...caught a few breaks at the movies lately. Romeo and Juliet and Richard III became vigorous films that did honor to both the Bard and the medium. Now Julie Taymor, the magician who on Broadway turned The Lion King menagerie into masked enchanters on stilts, takes Shakespeare's goriest play, Titus Andronicus, and makes it vivid, relevant and of elevating scariness...
...physiology. Brain scans of the students showed that Italians have more active superior temporal regions, while Brits have more active left frontal and posterior inferior temporal regions. While researchers said the immediate importance of the study lies in the area of teaching language and reading, it's sure to play a role in future anthropological research seeking to explain the differences between cultures. Unfortunately, there are no studies yet of what impact Pokemon-speak has on neurotransmission in young brains...