Vol. 183 No. #9
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More Stories from the May 4, 2013 issue

  1. Life

    Microbes flourish at deepest ocean site

    At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, eleven kilometers down, bacteria prosper despite crushing pressure and isolation.

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  2. Life

    How mammals grow ears: With a flaw

    A newly discovered rupture-and-repair process that occurs in embryos could explain a lot about infections and hearing defects.

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  3. Life

    Longhorn cattle ancestors came from Pakistan

    New World breeds trace back to both major bovine lineages, genetic analysis shows.

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  4. Life

    Impending death alters crickets’ standards for mates

    With a short time to live, parasite-infested females lose their preference for fast-chirping males.

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  5. Life

    Gut microbes may be behind weight loss after gastric bypass

    Mice slim down after receiving bacteria transplanted from rodents that had the surgery.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Hepatitis C drug goes after patients’ RNA

    An experimental medicine that targets a type of RNA in the liver leads to reduced virus levels in patients.

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  7. Life

    Blind cave-dwelling fish also hard of hearing

    Two species that live in the dark have worse hearing than do their surface-living cousins.

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  8. Earth

    Kansas was unbearably hot 270 million years ago

    Temperatures soared to nearly 74 degrees Celsius, which no plants or animals could endure.

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  9. Earth

    Fungi pull carbon into northern forest soils

    Organisms living on tree roots do the lion’s share of sequestering carbon.

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  10. Earth

    In Antarctica, melting may beget ice

    Disintegration of floating glaciers could be responsible for freezing of seawater.

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  11. Life

    Eye drops reduce signs of macular degeneration in mice

    Targeting cholesterol in retina stops rogue blood vessel growth often seen in the vision disease.

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  12. Psychology

    Babies’ flexible squeals may enable them to talk later

    Language evolution might have fed off infants’ ability to use certain sounds to express various emotions.

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  13. Tech

    Biological transistor built for living computers

    DNA-based switches could be used in diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

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  14. Earth

    How the West was done

    The tectonic history of North America’s Pacific Rim gets even more jumbled.

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  15. Physics

    Cosmic ray detector confirms hints of dark matter

    Space station-based instrument records high amount of antimatter seen in earlier experiments.

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  16. Health & Medicine

    Alzheimer’s plaque components fight inflammation

    In mice, bits of proteins can treat condition resembling multiple sclerosis.

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  17. Health & Medicine

    Dream contents deciphered by computer

    Similar brain patterns emerge when seeing an object and conjuring it during sleep.

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  18. Psychology

    Light found in cocaine addiction tunnel

    Using lasers, scientists target a sluggish set of neurons in rats to ease drug compulsion.

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  19. Climate

    Rising carbon dioxide means more air turbulence

    More jarring flights are likely, simulation suggests.

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  20. Life

    Dinosaur embryos were restless, speedy growers

    Hundreds of fossils found in China suggest some unhatched dinos kicked their legs.

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  21. Health & Medicine

    2013 American Association for Cancer Research meeting

    Highlights from the annual AACR meeting include ovulation’s impact on cancer risk and an experimental drug’s promising performance against leukemia.

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  22. Chemistry

    Malaria drug made by baker’s yeast

    Fermentation process using bioengineered version of the fungus could become important new production method for artemisinin.

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  23. Humans

    Possible human ancestor in Australopithecus sediba

    The hominid’s unusual build may place it in into humankind’s lineage.

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  24. Climate

    Cuts in some greenhouse gases could slow sea level rise

    Methane, ozone and other short-lived pollutants have a big impact on ocean heights, simulation finds.

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  25. Humans

    Spreading a scientific way of life

    The Science Life.

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  26. Upcoming events

    Science Future for May 4, 2013.

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  27. SN Online

    EARTH IN ACTION Learn about sinkhole science in Alex Witze’s column “Geologists develop weapons to combat that sinkhole feeling.” Courtesy of N. Thake ENVIRONMENT There’s good news for some corals in “Isolated coral reefs can regrow after bleaching.” DELETED SCENES Several new studies support claims of vitamin D’s health benefits. See “Vitamin D doesn’t disappoint.” […]

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  28. Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot by Peter Crane

    An ancient tree lineage has survived and made its way into humans’ lives through medicine, art and as a popular street tree, yet is now endangered in the wild. Yale Univ., 2013, 384 p., $40

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  29. Tech

    Frankenstein’s Cat

    Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts by Emily Anthes.

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  30. Particle Physics

    Heart of Darkness

    Unraveling the Mysteries of the Invisible Universe (Science Essentials) by Jeremiah P. Ostriker and Simon Mitton.

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  31. Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own by David Toomey

    Organisms in extreme environments — from bacteria deep under the ocean floor to imagined creatures on distant moons — challenge definitions of life. W.W. Norton & Co., 2013, 268 p., $25.95

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  32. BOOK REVIEW: Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald

    Review by Nathan Seppa.

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  33. Paleontology

    My Beloved Brontosaurus

    On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs by Brian Switek.

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  34. Health & Medicine

    The Human Brainome Project

    Obama announces ambitious plan to develop new tools for exploring neural circuitry.

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  35. Animals

    A Different Kind of Smart

    Animals’ cognitive shortcomings are as revealing as their genius.

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  36. Planetary Science

    Faint Young Sun

    Scientists struggle to understand how early Earth stayed warm enough for liquid water.

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  37. Letters to the editor

    Faux pas on fashion In “Students honored for research,” (SN: 4/6/13, p. 28), the female winner got singled out as “decked out in a lavender satin dress.” Didn’t Hillary Clinton recently point out to an interviewer that he asked her about her clothes, whereas he wouldn’t ask a man that? What are you trying to […]

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  38. New star dating method

    Science Past from the issue of May 4, 1963.

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  39. Red Rover: Inside the Story of Robotic Space Exploration, from Genesis to the Mars Rover Curiosity by Roger Wiens

    The scientist in charge of Curiosity’s ChemCam instrument gives a behind-the-scenes tour of the Mars robot. Basic Books, 2013, 233 p., $25.99

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