Preliminary evidence indicates that the human brain may undergo a unique form of fetal development that facilitates the growth of brain areas involved in symbolic thought and language. (p. 132)

An as-yet-unnamed species of octopus seems to be protecting itself by impersonating venomous animals from sea snakes to flatfish. (p. 132)

Compounds that inhibit the amino acid glutamate impede a form of brain cancer called glioma in rats. (p. 133)

Vestiges of soft tissue preserved in a 70-million-year-old Mongolian fossil suggest that some dinosaurs could have strained small bits of food from the water and mud of streams and ponds, just like some modern aquatic birds do. (p. 133)

Scientists have built a device that can hear the movement of viral particles in fluids. (p. 134)

A new nanoscale transistor that parcels out electrons with metronome-like regularity has the potential to lead to designs for electronic noses and tiny devices inside of cell phones. (p. 134)

Norwegian scientists have linked high milk consumption to low incidence of breast cancer. (p. 135)

By employing a novel computational strategy, researchers have mapped the electrical landscape of biological molecules made up of more than 1 million atoms. (p. 135)

A potential link between two disparate mathematical fields—number theory and chaotic dynamics—could lead to a proof that every digit of pi occurs with the same frequency. (p. 136)

The common waxbill's habit of adorning its nests with fur plucked from carnivore scat turns out to discourage attacks from predators. (p. 139)

Going to the trouble of molting doesn't really get rid of a bird's lice after all. (p. 139)

To cut down on their salmon smolt catch, Caspian terns were encouraged to move from one island to another in the Columbia River. (p. 139)

Pileated woodpeckers destroy in an afternoon the nesting cavities that take endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers 6 years to excavate. (p. 139)

Blind people can now use their tongues to see, albeit crudely, thanks to prototype technology that involves licking arrays of electrodes attached to video cameras. (p. 140)

Cells from human embryos can be transformed into heart cells or insulin-secreting cells. (p. 143)

An unusual mouse strain can regenerate heart tissue when the organ is damaged. (p. 143)

Insulin may reduce inflammation and protect the heart. (p. 143)

The impressions near Isona, Spain, long thought to be fossilized dinosaur footprints may actually record the feeding behavior of stingrays. (p. 143)

When paleontologists unearthed the skeleton of a 70-million-year-old titanosaur in Madagascar in the late 1990s, they also recovered something that had been missing from previous such finds: a skull that matched the body. (p. 143)