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Some Africans click, but English speakers don’t. That’s been the conventional wisdom about click sounds, which serve as regular consonants in Zulu and Xhosa and a few other African languages but which were presumed to just be used in English for encouraging a horse, imitating a kiss, or expressing emotions such as disapproval or amazement. But researchers have recently found that clicks are far more prevalent in the world’s lingua franca than had been thought.

Some Africans click, but English speakers don’t. That’s been the conventional wisdom about click sounds, which serve as regular consonants in Zulu and Xhosa and a few other African languages but which were presumed to just be used in English for encouraging a horse, imitating a kiss, or expressing emotions such as disapproval or amazement. But researchers have recently found that clicks are far more prevalent in the world’s lingua franca than had been thought.

By Katy Migiro NAIROBI, Feb 3 (AlertNet) - An exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies have ended famine in Somalia for now but food stocks could run out again in May, the United Nations said on Friday.

By Katy Migiro NAIROBI, Feb 3 (AlertNet) - An exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies have ended famine in Somalia for now but food stocks could run out again in May, the United Nations said on Friday. [More]

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about antibiotic resistance in agriculture and human health, MRSA, and a brief return to the subject of fecal transplants.

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about antibiotic resistance in agriculture and human health, MRSA, and a brief return to the subject of fecal transplants. [More]

Contact lenses that help enhance normal vision with megapixel 3D panoramic images are being designed by scientists using military funding.

Contact lenses that help enhance normal vision with megapixel 3D panoramic images are being designed by scientists using military funding. [More]

There’s an easy way to encourage people to take the stairs instead of an elevator: put up a sign reminding them to. [More]

A smart phone can do pretty much anything a PC can. But, aside from password protection, phones have very little security--a real problem with more and more people using phones for online banking and shopping

A smart phone can do pretty much anything a PC can. But, aside from password protection, phones have very little security--a real problem with more and more people using phones for online banking and shopping. [More]

By Carey Gillam (Reuters) - Weird weather kept vexing large swathes of the United States over the last week, with unseasonably warm and dry conditions melting northern snows and spreading drought through the southwest, even as heavy rains soaked parched pastures in Texas and Oklahoma, according to climate experts.

A potentially habitable alien planet -- one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface -- has been found around a nearby star. [More]

A potentially habitable alien planet -- one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface -- has been found around a nearby star. [More]

The United States' smallest meteorologist must be scratching his head about now. [More]