Category: Facts & Trends

7 GOOD REASONS TO BEFRIEND A SHARK

If nightmares about Jaws are keeping you from taking a dip in the ocean, relax. You’re much less appetizing than you think. 11: U.S. fatalities from sharks, 1990-2006 16: U.S. fatalities from collapsing sand holes, 1990-2006   1 in 310,733: Odds of dying in a fireworks accident 1 in 3,750,000: Odds of dying in a shark attack   80: Total unprovoked shark attacks around the world in 2012 30 Million: Sharks killed by people each year   219: Estimated […]

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Voyager 1 Escaping Our Solar System

On the 35th anniversary of its launch, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is close to becoming the first man-made object to escape our solar system. The spacecraft—run by a 1977 computer 100,000 times less powerful than an iPod Nano—is currently 11.3 billion miles away. In 2004, Voyager 1 entered the turbulent boundary zone beyond Pluto, where solar winds encounter plasma pushing […]

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Dolphins Have Names

It turns out that there’s strong evidence to suggest that at least one kind of dolphin sound, studied extensively over the past decade, does function as a kind of referential symbol. Dolphins use distinct “signature whistles” to identify and call to one another.  Each dolphin is thought to invent a unique name for itself as a calf and to keep […]

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The Cost of Dementia

As the population ages and lives longer, dementia has become one of the country’s most expensive medical conditions, with $109 billion in direct medical costs in 2010, a new RAND study found. The medical cost of dementia exceeds that of both heart disease, at $102 billion, and cancer, at $72 billion.

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