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Digital 3-D Atlas of Brain Reveals Tiny Details

Scientists have a new brain atlas to help them study their favorite organ. It's a digital, three-dimensional model called "BigBrain."

Its resolution is finer than a human hair, so it can reveal clusters of brain cells and even some large individual cells. It is being made available to scientists around the world.

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Study: A Woman's Face Drives Relationship Length

Men looking for a quick fling prefer women with more "feminine" facial features, said a study Friday that delved into the evolutionary determinants of the mating game.

Feminine features like a smaller jawbone or fuller cheeks are closely linked to a woman's perceived attractiveness, which in turn is taken as an indicator of health, youth and fidelity and other traits, it said.

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Philippines Financial Capital Bans Plastic Bags

The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers on Thursday, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding.

After a widespread publicity campaign leading up to the ban, Makati City environment protection officers began handing out fines of 5,000 pesos ($115) to shops and supermarkets caught distributing the items.

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China Astronaut Teaches Lesson from Space

A Chinese astronaut orbiting more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) above the Earth's surface delivered a video class to children across the country on Thursday, state television showed in a live broadcast.

Wearing a white space suit, Wang Yaping, the second Chinese woman in space, demonstrated how a variety of objects -- from a bubble of water to a spinning toy -- behave in zero gravity.

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Mongolia Confronts Smog with Launch of First Wind Farm

Mongolia on Thursday opened its first wind farm, a landmark $122 million project that aims to shift the country's reliance on coal and tackle the pollution choking its capital Ulan Bator.

A total of 31 turbines have been erected at the facility, which are expected to power five percent of electricity needs in a country undergoing rapid transformation on the back of a spectacular boom in mining -- particularly coal.

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Eerie Silence from Quake Zone Close to Istanbul

German and Turkish scientists on Tuesday said they had pinpointed an extremely dangerous seismic zone less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the historic heart of Istanbul.

Running under the Sea of Marmara just south of the city of some 15 million people, this segment of the notorious North Anatolian fault has been worryingly quiet in recent years, which may point to a buildup in tension, they wrote.

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NASA Enlists Public in Hunt for Major Asteroids

NASA announced a Grand Challenge on Tuesday to enlist government agencies, industry, academics and citizen astronomers in the hunt for asteroids that could cause massive destruction.

The U.S. space agency said the challenge would complement another recently announced project to use a robot to redirect an asteroid into the Moon's orbit so astronauts could visit the object and study it.

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World's Largest all-Solar-Powered Boat Shines in NYC

The world's largest fully solar-powered boat, "Turanor PlanetSolar," docked in New York on Tuesday during a mission to study the effects of climate change on the Gulf Stream current.

Sponsored in part by the Swiss government, the 35-meter (115-foot) catamaran is crowned with solar panels that retract in port but open like a bird's wings to take best advantage of the sun's rays when at sea.

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You Clap, So I Clap: Peer Pressure Drives Applause

If you have just seen a play that you privately think is drivel, will you keep silent when everyone around you demands an encore?

Possibly not, says an unusual investigation published Wednesday in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

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World Bank Warns Global Warming Woes Closing In

The World Bank on Wednesday warned that severe hardships from global warming could be felt within a generation, with new study detailing devastating impacts in Africa and Asia.

The report presents "an alarming scenario for the days and years ahead -- what we could face in our lifetime," said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

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