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To improve understanding of human degenerative neural disorders, such as Huntington’s disease, scientists at Columbia University have been conducting research on the roundworm’s sense of touch. Researchers tickle the .01-inch-long worms with human eyebrow hairs to see if they twitch.
Scientists at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have been taste testing perspiration to use for human hydration on long space flights. They collect sweat from volunteers who have been forced to exercise vigorously.
In October surgeons at Stanford University Medical Center removed what is believed to be the largest cyst ever–weighing 303 pounds and measuring three feet in diameter–from a 34-year-old woman. The woman stands five-foot-ten and weighed in at 210 pounds after the operation. (Previously the largest cyst on record was 185 pounds.)
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