In the Guardian, reporter Kate Ravilious asked 10 scientists to name the biggest danger to human life on Earth. Some of them say we’ll go out with a bang, others say Earth will have a slow lingering end. Still other scientists say we’ll solve our problems by evolving into a new species.

According to British astronomer royal Martin Rees, human beings have only have a 50-50 chance of making it through the 21st century. He thinks our biggest threats, such as global warming, are caused by humans. U.K. researcher Nick Brooks also thinks that climate change is our greatest danger.
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Newswise – Leaving your significant other behind while you attend college or serve in the militatry can actually kindle a closer love affair. Contrary to popular belief, long-distance relationships tend to last as long?and sometimes longer?as relationships in which partners live close to each other.

Psychologist Mary Carole Pistole studied college students and found that one-third of college students were involved in a relationship with someone who lived in another city or state, because they were attending a different college. She says that these relationships tend to last longer because they work differently than geographically close ones.
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Newswise – The government is using illegal Mexican immigrants to clean up damage from Katrina. Meanwhile, President Bush wants to create a “guest worker” program, somewhat like the “brasero” program of the 1940s and 50s.

Economist Paul Hancock says the use of migrant labor to harvest America’s crops is a product of policy decisions dating back to 1909. He says, “It’s far more complex than conventional economic principals about the supply and demand of labor. Economic, political and cultural processes, operating in both the United States and in nations that send migrant workers to the United States, are at work. Unfortunately, few people have examined migrant labor in anything other than simplistic economic terms.”
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Over the past two days, major earthqakes have struck inChina and Iran. The Chinese quake, which measured 5.5 on the Richter Scale, struck at 8:49 Saturday morning along theHubei-Jiangxi provincial border, a short distance from thecity of Jiujiang. It killed at least 17 people and leftthousands homeless. This morning, at least ten people were killed and many more injured when a quake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale struck southern Iran. The quake was centered 35 miles south of Bandar Abbas, and took place at 1:52 PM local time.
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