Physicists have long held the view that the rate of breakdown - or decay - for any given radioactive substance is constant.

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The rate of the breakdown of protein is highest in-between meals.

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The rate of scarring outpaces collagen's natural breakdown, choking the life out of the organ or paralyzing a limb.

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But, in the longer run, the breakdown of an exchange-rate regime that did so much to foster growth may force the region's exporters to do things they have long talked about, such as improving education so as to increase productivity and foster domestic technologies.

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