Macaca? Mohawk? Here’s the Big Hairy Deal

This week, after Sen. George Allen called his oppo­nen­t’s staffer Maca­ca, a con­tro­ver­sy brewed. What does the word mean? Is it demean­ing? Or worse yet — French? But amid the apol­o­gy and recrim­i­na­tions, a mys­tery has emerged regard­ing coiffure.

Atomic Hopper Shows Promise for Nano Switching

A sin­gle cobalt atom has been made to hop back and forth between two posi­tions in response to an elec­tric cur­rent by US researchers. The tech­nique could some day lead to the devel­op­ment of atom­ic switch­es for nanoscale devices.

Runner to Take on 50 Marathons in 50 Days

This fall, 43-year-old long dis­tance run­ner [Dean Kar­nazes] will tack­le one marathon a day for 50 con­sec­u­tive days, run­ning a total 1,310 miles (2,108.2 km) in 50 days. And for each 26.2‑mile (42.2 km) race, Kar­nazes and his fam­i­ly of four will trav­el to a dif­fer­ent U.S. state.

Democrats’ Stock Is Rising on K Street

Wash­ing­ton lob­by­ing firms, trade asso­ci­a­tions and cor­po­rate offices are mov­ing to hire more well-con­nect­ed Democ­rats in response to ris­ing prospects that the oppo­si­tion par­ty will wrest con­trol of at least one cham­ber of Con­gress from Repub­li­cans in the Novem­ber elections.