New rules imposed by the NRC require plant operators to install or improve venting systems to limit core damage in a serious accident and set up sophisticated equipment to monitor water levels in pools of spent nuclear fuel.

NPR: Nuclear Chief: US Plants Safer After Japan Crisis

By the time he was brought back from exile to his home (which his sister said is 'like heaven'), the damage to his core personality was done.

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Ms. Giffords's immediate responsiveness to commands, such as squeezing a doctor's hand, suggests that she wasn't in a coma and that her brain stem and the brain's core structures had relatively little damage.

WSJ: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's Brain at Risk Despite Quick Aid After Shooting

There is a specific worry that it could damage his standing with a core group of Republican voters - Evangelical Christians.

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With vegetative patients the brain injury causes sufficient damage to leave them with nothing but core reflexes and no higher cognitive function.

BBC: Finding a voice for the brain injured

But it is not impossible that the resultant blurring of basic and applied research, allied to the emergence of the core-and-cloud university, will turn out to revitalise university science rather than damage it.

ECONOMIST: A cardinal in cyberspace