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Science, in the broadest sense of the term, refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such qualified research.
Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a rigorous process for properly developing and evaluating natural explanations for observable phenomena based on reliable empirical evidence and neutral, unbiased independent verification, and not on arguments from authority or popular preferences. Science therefore bypasses supernatural explanations; it instead only considers natural explanations that may be falsifiable.
Fields of science are distinguished as pure science or applied science. Pure science is principally involved with the discovery of new truths with little or no regard to their practical applications. Applied science is principally involved with the application of existing knowledge in new ways, including advances in technology.
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A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal performs an action and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (especially conspecific) animal. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of another animal, as though the observer were himself performing the action. These neurons have been observed in primates and in some birds. In humans, they have been found in Broca's area and the inferior parietal cortex of the brain. Some scientists consider mirror neurons one of the most important findings of neuroscience in the last decade. See for example, an essay by Ramachandran on their potential importance in imitation and language.
In humans, mirror neurons are found in the inferior frontal cortex, close to Broca's area, a language region. This has led to suggestions that human language evolved from a gesture performance/understanding system implemented in mirror neurons. However, like many theories of language evolution, there is little direct evidence either way.
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Credit: Mircea Madau
Lightning is a powerful natural electrostatic discharge produced during a thunderstorm. This abrupt electric discharge is accompanied by the emission of visible light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The electric current passing through the discharge channels heat rapidly and expands the air into plasma, producing acoustic shock waves (thunder) in the atmosphere.
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Maria Mitchell (August 11, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer. Born on Nantucket Island, she was a first cousin four times removed of Benjamin Franklin.
Her parents were Quakers who, unconventionally for their time, insisted on giving her the same quality of education that boys received. She worked as a librarian and also pursued astronomy at her father's observatory.
Using a telescope, she discovered "Miss Mitchell's Comet" (Comet 1847 VI, modern designation is C/1847 T1) in the autumn of 1847. Some years previously, King Frederick VI of Denmark had established gold medal prizes to each discoverer of a "telescopic comet" (too faint to be seen with the naked eye). The prize was to be awarded to the "first discoverer" of each such comet (note that comets are often independently discovered by more than one person). She duly won one of these prizes, and this gave her worldwide fame, since the only previous woman to discover a comet had been Caroline Herschel.
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Did you know...

...that coloration is a property of loudspeakers that causes the speaker to continue to emit sound when an electrical signal stops?
...that light in a plasma display is created by phosphors excited by the ultraviolet radiation emitted by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass?
...that the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 led to wind gusts in excess of 100 mph/87 knots across New York, New Jersey, and New England?
...that the two human atria do not have valves at their inlets?
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September 10: Out of space in outer space: Special report on NASA's 'space junk' plans
September 3: Study concludes 9/11 firefighters are 19% more likely to develop cancer
August 18: SETI Institute set to re-open
August 14: New drug may treat virtually all viral infections
August 13: Shell reports oil leak at North Sea platform
August 12: Scientists use gene therapy, patients' own immune systems to fight leukemia
August 9: DNA components found in meteorites
August 6: Juno spacecraft bound for Jupiter
August 3: Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa dies aged 80
August 3: British man survives artificial heart transplant