Did Global Warming Slow Down in the 2000s, or Not? and other top stories.

• Did Global Warming Slow Down in the 2000s, or Not?

  The global warming “hiatus,” a controversy that spawned congressional hearings and thousands of skeptical blog posts before being curbed last year, is back. The “hiatus” refers to the observation that global warming has slowed in the past 15 years. The planet is still warming, but just not as quickly as some climate scientists expected it to. The debate between researchers and doubters reached a crescendo last summer, when scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration updated..

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• Quantum Dot Solids, The 21st Century Silicon Wafer

  

  As a product of the 1970s, I grew up with talk the Silicon Valley from an early age. I understood what that meant about as much as the adults that bandied this land of fairly-tales about in conversation, but they later learned that the silicon wafer changed everything. That may well turn out to be the case with the quantum dot. Quantum dot solids and full disclosure If I were writing about Apple’s stock potentially rising to $200 based on an analyst’s note to investors I would feel ethically i..

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• SpaceX set for second launch attempt today

  

  The launch window for tonight's SpaceX launch remains open with Air Force officials earlier saying there was an 80 percent chance of conditions favorable for launch. It serves as a second try to launch an SES communications satellite, which was scrubbed shortly before takeoff last night.  The launch is scheduled for 6:46 p.m. from Cape Canaveral. On Thursday the launch window was extended to 6:46 p.m. to 8:23 p.m.The commercial space company said the scrub was "out of an abundance of caution," ..

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• Scientists trace mysterious radio flash to distant galaxy

  

  For the first time, unusual radio signals that long befuddled scientists have been traced to a distant galaxy as much as 6 billion light years away. These fast radio bursts (FRBs) - spectacular flashes of radio waves originating in the distant universe - emit as much energy in one millisecond as the Sun does in 10,000 years. They were discovered in 2007 but only 17 bursts have been found, even though astronomers estimate that they might occur 10,000 times a day across the entire sky. Its unclea..

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• First Animal on Earth Was Likely the Sea Sponge

  

  Sea sponges, widely considered the first animals on Earth, now have some extra ammunition to back up that belief. A molecule present in 640-million-year-old rocks comes from a simple sea sponge, according to genetic analysis done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers. The time frame is well before the Cambrian Explosion 540 million years ago, in which most animals groups sprang up and took hold in a relatively short geologic stretch. That makes the humble sea sponge a likel..

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Investigators search Charles River for Harvard man .	Video appears to show missing man enter water, police say .
Residual delays after truck rolls over on Route 128 in Randolph .	6 killed in Michigan parking lot shootings .