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There have been disastrous flash floods in the US, thankfully warning systems have lowered the death tolls. But a flash flood can happen in an instant killing many

Flash floods kill an average of 100 people in the United States every year in both rural areas and in major cities. You should know these flash flood safety rules and tips.

""There are flash bulbs going off in the dark, suggesting that very complex neurodegenerative disorders may be linked to the microbiome. But once again this is very speculative. These seminal findings, the flash bulbs, are only just beginning to illuminate our vision of the gut-microbiome-brain connection," said Mazmanian"

"Europa und insbesondere auch Oberösterreich steuern auf einen massiven Technikermangel zu. Bereits jetzt fällt es den oberösterreichischen Betrieben schwer, genügend qualifizierte Techniker zu finden und der Mangel nimmt weiter zu. In den nächsten Jahren kommt es euro-paweit zu einer Pensionierungswelle an hochqualifizierten Technikern und aus den Univer-sitäten und Fachhochschulen kommen zu wenige Ingenieure nach. Verschärft wird diese Situa-tion noch durch den demografischen Wandel. Weiters haben die österreichischen Jugendli-chen im Quervergleich mit allen EU 27 eine negativere Einstellung zu Technik und Engineering als der EU-Durchschnitt (Flash Eurobarometer „Young people and science" 09/2008). "

It's not quite Cyclops, the sci-fi superhero from the X-Men franchise whose eyes produce destructive blasts of light, but for the first time a laser has been created using a biological cell. The human kidney cell that was used to make the laser survived the experience. In future such "living lasers" might be created inside live animals, which could potentially allow internal tissues to be imaged in unprecedented detail. It's not the first unconventional laser. Other attempts include lasers made of Jell-O and powered by nuclear reactors (see box below). But how do you go about giving a living cell this bizarre ability? Typically, a laser consists of two mirrors on either side of a gain medium - a material whose structural properties allow it to amplify light. A source of energy such as a flash tube or electrical discharge excites the atoms in the gain medium, releasing photons. Normally, these would shoot out in random directions, as in the broad beam of a flashlight, but a laser uses mirrors on either end of the gain medium to create a directed beam. As photons bounce back and forth between the mirrors, repeatedly passing through the gain medium, they stimulate other atoms to release photons of exactly the same wavelength, phase and direction. Eventually, a concentrated single-frequency beam of light erupts through one of the mirrors as laser light.

All hail the powerful smile. The right smile, at the right time, wins friends and calms enemies. The smile held for too long, not long enough, flashed too intensively or too dimly, arouses suspicion, fear or anger. Far from being a straightforward show of joy, the language of smiles is filled with subtlety: a meld of our inner state, surroundings, social training, conscious and unconscious.