Word: reasons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Einstein taught the greatest humility of all: that we are but a speck in an unfathomably large universe. The more we gain insight into its mysterious forces, cosmic and atomic, the more reason we have to be humble. And the more we harness the huge power of these forces, the more such humility becomes an imperative. "A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe," he once wrote, "in the face of which we, with our modest powers, must feel humble...
...reason general relativity broke down at the Big Bang was that it was not compatible with quantum theory, the other great conceptual revolution of the early 20th century. The first step toward quantum theory came in 1900, when Max Planck, working in Berlin, discovered that the radiation from a body that was glowing red hot could be explained if light came only in packets of a certain size, called quanta. It was as if radiation were packaged like sugar; you cannot buy an arbitrary amount of loose sugar in a supermarket but can only buy it in 1-lb. bags...
...Indian government supports the anti-Taliban opposition, the Afghans' conduct during the hijacking had earned praise from New Delhi. "The Taliban's refusal to allow a commando raid on the plane raises the question of whether they?re playing a double game," says Rahman. "After all, there's no reason for the hijackers to back down on their demands if there?s no fear of an imminent attack. Right now, the hijackers are fairly comfortable." That may change, of course, if the Taliban forces the plane to leave. That...
Score one for the bad guys. While U.S. authorities still hold that they have no credible reason to believe there'll be any New Year's terrorist catastrophes, cities are scaling back on their Y2K celebrations just in case. "This is already an unprecedented, unpredictable New Year's and we did not want to take chances with public safety," said Seattle mayor Paul Schell, announcing that the city has canceled a huge celebration planned for the area surrounding the Space Needle. The Y2K threat has also put a damper on a half-day celebration planned in Philadelphia, in which citizens...
Does it ever seem as though people speak some foreign languages at 78 rpm, while your English-speaking brain is going at 33? There may be good reason. New research, to be published in the January issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, found that the primary language a person is raised with affects the way he or she thinks and processes information. The researchers studied Italian and British college students and found that the Italians read and process information faster, even when reading words from other languages. The findings come as little surprise to linguistics experts, who've long held...