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Major depressive disorder (MDD) should be re-conceptualized as an infectious disease, according to Turhan Canli, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Radiology at Stony Brook University. In a paper published in Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders, Dr.Canli suggests that major depression may result from parasitic, bacterial, or viral infection. He presents examples that illustrate possible pathways by which these microorganisms could contribute to the etiology of MDD.
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Science has great news for bibliophiles who can’t quite get the same buzz from downloading an e-book onto their Kindle as they do from the purchase of a good old-fashioned paper novel.

Aside from the fact that Kindle removes the sensory experience of book-ownership – you can’t touch, flick through, even smell a Kindle book – a recent study has suggested that readers who attempt to absorb information from an e-book are less likely to remember facts that those who read the same information from the printed page.
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After an amazing ten year journey, the Rosetta mission landed its module Philae on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko at 16:03 GMT on Wednesday.

Rosetta was launched on 2 March 2004 on an Ariane 5 rocket, and has already made history by becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet after it reached its long-awaited destination on August 6th 2014.
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Despite the disturbing warnings detailed in last week’s Unknown Country Weekender, which warned of the potential dangers posed to mankind from Artificial Intelligence (AI), further news of our continued but highly questionable faith in this form of technology has emerged.

In a recent article in the New York Times, a form of particularly chilling AI is described: it appears that man in his wisdom has now devolved the responsibility of whom to kill down to so-called "intelligent" bombs. The article reveals that last year, an Air Force B-1 bomber tested a new missile off the coast of Southern California, but this was a missile with a difference.
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