News

  1. Neuroscience

    Abnormal sense of touch may play role in autism

    Autism-related genes are important for touch perception, a sense that may help the brain develop normally, a study of mice suggests.

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  2. Life

    Obesity’s weight gain message starts in gut

    Acetate made by gut microbes stimulates weight gain, research in rodents suggests.

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  3. Anthropology

    Hobbit history gets new preface

    Jaw, tooth fossils put new spin on evolution of Homo floresiensis.

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  4. Life

    By leaking light, squid hides in plain sight

    Glass squid camouflage their eyes with wonderfully inefficient bioluminescence.

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  5. Earth

    Spy satellites reveal early start to Antarctic ice shelf collapse

    Declassified spy satellite images reveal that Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf began destabilizing decades earlier than previously thought.

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  6. Quantum Physics

    Quantum weirdness survives space travel

    Quantum weirdness travels from Earth to space and back again.

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  7. Animals

    Pygmy blue whales deepen their moans

    Sri Lankan pygmy blue whales are tweaking their calls — making one part deeper and keeping another part the same — but scientists can’t say why. The finding injects a new wrinkle in theories about blue whale calls.

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  8. Genetics

    Ancient DNA tells of two origins for dogs

    Genetic analysis of an ancient Irish mutt reveals complicated history of dog domestication.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Jupiter’s stormy weather no tempest in teapot

    New radio observations reveal how ammonia moves about beneath Jupiter’s clouds and provide a sneak peek at what NASA’s Juno mission will learn later this year.

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  10. Archaeology

    Earliest evidence of fire making in Europe found

    Clues to Stone Age fire making surface in a Spanish cave.

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  11. Life

    Jumping gene turned peppered moths the color of soot

    A single gene is behind some of the most famous examples of natural selection.

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  12. Earth

    Plate tectonics just a stage in Earth’s life cycle

    Plate tectonics is just a phase in a planet’s lifetime between conditions that are too hot or too cold for the planet-churning mechanism, new simulations suggest.

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