Vol. 196 No. 8
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More Stories from the November 9, 2019 issue

  1. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, cancer vaccines were a dream

    Researchers are now prodding the immune system to fight cancer, reviving the longtime dream of creating cancer vaccines.

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  2. Space

    With 20 new moons, Saturn now has the most of any solar system planet

    The discovery brings Saturn’s moon tally to 82. The previous record-holder, Jupiter, has 79.

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  3. Neuroscience

    Plants don’t have feelings and aren’t conscious, a biologist argues

    The rise of the field of “plant neurobiology” has this scientist and his colleagues pushing back.

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  4. Space

    A new image reveals the structure of the cosmic web

    Newly spotted tendrils of gas within a forming cluster of galaxies support scientists’ theory of the cosmos.

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  5. Life

    Acrobatic choanoflagellates could help explain how multicellularity evolved

    A newfound single-celled microbe species forms groups of multiple individual organisms that change shape in response to light.

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  6. Physics

    Physicists have found quasiparticles that mimic hypothetical dark matter axions

    These subatomic particles could make up dark matter in the cosmos. A mathematically similar phenomenon occurs in a solid material.

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  7. Animals

    Humpback whales use their flippers and bubble ‘nets’ to catch fish

    A study reveals new details of how humpback whales hunt using their flippers and a whirl of bubbles to capture fish.

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  8. Archaeology

    Ancient European households combined the rich and poor

    Homes combined “haves” and “have-nots” in a male-run system, suggests a study that challenges traditional views of ancient social stratification.

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  9. Ecosystems

    Burrowing birds create pockets of rich plant life in a desert landscape

    Mounds of sand dug out by birds are hot spots for plants in Peru’s Atacama Desert, possibly providing a sheltered and moist area for seed germination.

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  10. Neuroscience

    Dueling brain waves during sleep may decide whether rats remember or forget

    In a slumbering rat, two distinct kinds of brain waves have opposite jobs.

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  11. Neuroscience

    Organoids offer clues to how brains are made in humans and chimpanzees

    Three-dimensional clumps of brain cells offer clues about how brains get made in humans and chimpanzees.

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  12. Science & Society

    Economics Nobel goes to poverty-fighting science

    Three scientists share the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for developing real-world interventions for tackling poverty.

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  13. Physics

    Physics Nobel awarded for discoveries about the universe’s evolution and exoplanets

    Three scientists share the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics for revealing what makes up our cosmos and for finding the first planet orbiting a sunlike star.

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  14. Health & Medicine

    Discovery of how cells sense oxygen wins the 2019 medicine Nobel

    Understanding the molecular switch that lets cells cope with oxygen has implications for everything from metabolism to wound healing.

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  15. Chemistry

    The development of the lithium-ion battery has won the chemistry Nobel Prize

    Three scientists have won the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for helping create lithium-ion batteries, which power everyday devices from smartphones to electric cars.

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  16. Life

    How tardigrades protect their DNA to defy death

    Tardigrades encase their DNA in a cloud of protective protein to shield from damage by radiation or drying out.

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  17. Paleontology

    Big dinosaurs kept cool thanks to blood vessel clusters in their heads

    Giant dinosaurs evolved several strategies for cooling their blood and avoiding heatstroke.

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  18. Space

    How the second known interstellar visitor makes ‘Oumuamua seem even odder

    With its gaseous halo and tail, the second discovered interstellar object, 2I/Borisov, looks basically like your run-of-the-mill solar system comet.

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  19. Materials Science

    A new cooling technique relies on untwisting coiled fibers

    A “twist fridge” operates via twistocaloric cooling, a technique that generates cooling by unraveling twisted strands.

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