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Your next cellphone may not look anything like the one you have now?no matter which phone service you use. A new cellphone will be available soon that?s as thin as a piece of paper?so thin, you can keep it in your wallet next to your credit cards.

Designer Stephen Forshaw has developed a thin phone that?s stuck onto a piece of paper. The only problem?it can only be used for one call, so you?ll stick it in your wallet (or give it to your kids) in case of emergency. The design won first prize in a competition sponsored by Sony.
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The melting ice sheets in Antarctica are a major news item. However, Antarctica is having a lesser-known problem as well: it has become a new tourist destination. The bacteria from the feet of thousands of visitors could cause ecological devastation in the area.

Almost 15,000 tourists a year visit this pristine wilderness area, arriving on the continent and offshore islands by ship. Australian Infection Control Association researchers found that although visitors are told to wash their boots in seawater before setting foot on the ice, this isn?t enough to protect the local wildlife from potentially deadly bacteria.
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Almost 90,000 acres have burned in wildfires in Colorado and now the out-of-control fire is headed for Denver. People still talk about the Chicago fire, a century ago, but no major city has burned for years. Will Denver burn?

Forest fires are not uncommon in Colorado but this one, started by sparks from a campfire, is the largest in Colorado history. How can a few sparks start such a huge conflagration? The answer is drought: due to global warming, there?s been less snow, thus less summer snow melt. This means less water and one of the driest years in history, with trees ready to burst into flame. The resin in some pine trees can even burst into flame spontaneously if the weather gets hot and dry enough.
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Science and military experts disagree somewhat on the potential devastation that would be caused by the explosion of a dirty bomb, like the kind the accused al-Qaeda terrorist Abdullah al Mujahir was allegedly planning to build.

They all agree that a dirty bomb is not the same as a conventional nuclear weapon, which produces intense heat and radiation from splitting atoms and kills huge number of people instantly. A dirty bomb has radioactive material inside or around conventional explosives, which are then detonated to spread the radioactivity. This kind of radiation doesn?t immediately kill, according to Naval War College professor William Martel, “But it’d create huge amounts of terror, havoc, and panic.”
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