News
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Is a Galápagos finch caught in a split?
An inland population of one of the famed Galápagos finches may become a new textbook example of the way in which two species emerge from one while still living together.
- Animals
How do female lemurs get so tough?
Female ring-tailed lemurs may get masculinized by well-timed little rises of prenatal hormones.
- Animals
Female moths join pheromone choruses
Female rattlebox moths can detect each other's male-luring pheromones and tend to gather in what may be a scent version of male frogs' chorusing around the pond.
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Drug could be depression buster
Preliminary evidence indicates that a single dose of a drug called ketamine rapidly quells symptoms of major depression for up to 1 week in patients who don't benefit from standard antidepressant medications.
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Sperm in frozen animals still viable years later
Sperm stored inside frozen organs or whole animals can produce healthy offspring years later.
- Astronomy
Spiral galaxy in the young universe
Astronomers have identified a galaxy that had already begun to resemble the modern Milky Way when the universe was only 3 billion years old, one-fifth of its current age.
- Anthropology
Chimps spread out their tools
Chimpanzees use stones to crack nuts in an African region far from where that behavior was thought to be relegated.
- Earth
Mercury Rising: Natural wildfires release pollutant
Fires in high-latitude forests and peaty soils of the Northern Hemisphere may loft hundreds of tons of mercury into the atmosphere each year.
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Pathogen Preference: Infected amoebas flourish in cooling towers
Cooling towers appear to be more effective than natural waters at fostering novel bacterial species that cause illnesses in people.
- Chemistry
Lacy molecular order
A lacy honeycomb arrangement of molecules on copper suggests the possibility of creating useful nanoscale patterns on surfaces by fine-tuning intermolecular forces.
- Animals
Underage Spiders: Males show unexpected interest in young mates
Male Australian redback spiders mate readily with females too young to have external openings to their reproductive tracts, a tactic that reduces the male's risk of getting cannibalized.
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Sweet Finding: Researchers propose candidate sour sensor
A protein on the surfaces of select tongue cells may play a pivotal role in detecting sour taste.
