But last year sales started to drop due to fears of an extremely rare side effect that might itself cause a deadly heart attack.

FORBES: Study Could Hurt Stent Sales

One problem was that it is extremely difficult to recreate the effect in the laboratory.

ECONOMIST: Recreating the planet's magnetic field in a laboratory

Even though the force acting on the asteroid would be extremely small, the cumulative effect over a week or so should be enough to do the trick.

ECONOMIST: The American Association for the Advancement of Science

The case illustrates the difficulty of pinning a side effect to a particular drug based on the scant reports of side effects that come to the FDA. It is extremely difficult to link a side effect, like an inflamed pancreas, with a particular drug.

FORBES: Dark Cloud Over Amylin

This point is true in principle, but the effect is likely to be extremely small.

FORBES: Libertarians for Central Planning, at Least for Copyrighted Works

Clusters like El Gordo release energetic particles that have an effect on the cosmic microwave background, the extremely faint glow left over from the Big Bang that permeates the Universe.

BBC: 'El Gordo' is largest distant galaxy cluster ever seen

Colonel JOE CURTIN (Spokesman, Pentagon): The division has almost 300 helicopters, cargo, attack and reconnaissance-type aircraft, so it is an extremely capable division that can provide the necessary speed and shock effect that you would need in a large-scale combat operation.

NPR: Ambitious U.S.-Iraqi Air Assault Targets Insurgents

Since these exporters are usually extremely keen to maintain their share in the world's biggest market, they often absorb the effect of a drop in the dollar by cutting their profits rather than raising the price.

ECONOMIST: Why America's deficit is hard to turn around