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August 1, 2011
Running from math
By Ashley Yeager
. . . 158 . . . 159 . . . 160.
In the first minute of my morning run, my feet strike the ground 160 times, 80 times each foot.
Yes, I count. But not for the whole run. I cheat and do the math.
It's pretty astounding to calculate that in a short, 30-minute jog through Duke Forest, each foot hits the dirt 2,400 times.
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July 21, 2011
Flying high on stolen wings
Guest post by Viviane Callier, Duke biology
The wing color patterns on some butterfly species have evolved to copy wings on other butterfly species. In Heliconius butterflies, which are toxic to birds, the convergence of several species on the same wing color pattern gives them all mutual benefit – birds recognize one pattern saying “I’m poisonous; don’t eat me!"
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June 23, 2011
Seeing the quarks in particle collisions
By Ashley Yeager
Quarks are prisoners to their nuclear family. The sub-atomic particles are rooted so deep within their protons and neutrons that it takes an extreme amount of energy for them to escape.
Though extreme, that energy barrier hasn’t deterred scientists from trying to set the quarks free.
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June 3, 2011
Math department ranks 10th in world
By Ashley Yeager
Bet you've never seen a molecule dance. You'd probably never think that a molecule's jitterbug would make Duke the tenth best school in the world for studying math, either.
But, this dance, called Brownian motion, is among the subjects Duke mathematicians have tackled in their research.
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May 2, 2011
Statisticians Review Landmark HIV Vaccine Trial
Hopes ran high in 2009 when a New England Journal of Medicine article announced success in developing a vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
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April 22, 2011
Sir Richard's Possible Folly
Moving animals, like the ring-tailed lemur, from one continent to another to save the species hasn't been done often and typically isn’t successful.
But that hasn't deterred businessman and adventure tycoon Sir Richard Branson from announcing plans to import 30 ring-tailed lemurs from global zoos to his private island of Moskito, located in the Caribbean.
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