Mathematician Bruce Bukiet, of the New Jersey Institute ofTechnology, has figured out something many coaches haven’t:how to have the perfect batting line-up. Baseball teamswould play better if coaches did away with the traditionalbatting line-up, he says. Putting the best batter second,rather than the fourth as is usually done, could improve ateam’s score. And the weakest hitter should not bat last.

If there are already players on base, a strong hitter has abetter chance of getting them back to home base. For thatreason, managers put the strongest players together in theline-up.
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What’s become known as the “Mysterious Hum” — anunrelenting rumble that has driven citizens of Taos, NewMexico and Kokomo, Indiana, absolutely nuts — has nowarrived in Victoria, Canada.

It’s been described as sounding like the low rumble of adiesel engine. Many people blame it for chronic headaches,nausea, insomnia, diarrhea, fatigue and joint pain. “It’shard to sustain an effort against the unknown,” says BernardMcCarron, a retired high school English teacher who startedhearing the hum in 1996.
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The cattle mutilations in Argentina that have been describedon Dreamland by Linda Howe have been explained as beingcaused by a species of mouse that exists only in parts ofSouth America.

In April, Argentinian veterinarian Daniel Belot wascontacted by a rancher who found a 1,000-pound AberdeenAngus steer lying on its belly with the left side of itsface around the jaw gone and its hide cut away in twostraight lines meeting at a 90-degree angle. Its tongue,pharynx and larynx were missing and muscles and ligamentshad been cleanly removed from the jawbones. There was noblood on the animal or nearby, and there were no signs ofscavengers or predators.
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An amino acid that is one of the building blocks of life onEarth has been found in deep space. This means that thechemistry needed to create life is not unique to Earth,making it more likely that life exists on other planets. Italso means that molecules from space may have made their wayto Earth and started life here. Amino acids are importantbecause they link up to form proteins, the molecules thatmake up and run our cells.

Lewis Snyder, an astronomer at the University of Illinois,and Yi-Jehng Kuan, of the National Taiwan Normal University,found the amino acid. Kuan says, “We have strong evidencethat [the amino acid] glycine exists in interstellar space.”
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