When exposed to high heat and pressure, single-crystal diamonds become extraordinarily hard. (p. 131)

Coin tossing is inherently biased, with the coin more likely to land on the same face it started on. (p. 131)

In an analysis of a group of distant supernovas, astronomers have found hints that dark energy is distributed uniformly throughout space. (p. 132)

Foxes native to a California island—famous for the least genetic diversity ever reported in a sexually reproducing animal—have some variation after all. (p. 132)

Different classical-music passages facilitate thinking about specific verbal categories, triggering brain responses previously seen only when people recognized related linguistic meanings. (p. 133)

New analyses of mysterious pillars at two sites in southern Africa suggest that the sandstone features are petrified remains of large, elaborate termite nests. (p. 133)

A drug normally used against epilepsy can prevent migraine headaches. (p. 134)

Hitting fundamental limits on how small they can make certain structures within semiconductor transistors, chip makers are deforming the silicon crystals from which those transistors are made to eke out some extra speed. (p. 136)

Immune system cells may underlie much of the disease-provoking injury in obese individuals that has been linked to their excess fat. (p. 139)

Deactivating a single gene can produce mice with an abnormally sharp sense of smell. (p. 141)

A major advance in agriculture occurred around 11,000 years ago, when western Asians began to walk through patches of wild barley and wheat and scoop handfuls of ripened grains off the ground, a report suggests. (p. 141)

A change in how New York City officials identify and track cases of HIV infection has yielded the clearest picture yet of how deeply rooted that city's epidemic has become. (p. 141)

Viruses related to HIV can be found in the blood of some zoo staff and other people who work with primates, although the infections don't appear to be harmful. (p. 141)

Mathematical equations can predict whether a couple will divorce. (p. 142)

Wild dogs that haven't lived with people for 5,000 years share little of the capacity of their domesticated cousins for interpreting human gestures. (p. 142)

New evidence indicates that anthrax bacteria may sometimes live freely and reproduce in soil, perhaps exchanging genes with other bacteria, instead of staying dormant in spores. (p. 142)

Researchers trekking through remote Russian villages have identified and interviewed some of the last remaining speakers of two Turkic languages. (p. 142)

(p. 143)