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Humans

Plague bug not so fierce after all

DNA analysis shows bacterium was fairly ordinary but thrived in pestilent conditions of medieval Europe.

Life

Doubled gene means extra smarts

Change during human evolution could have led to bigger brains.

Paleontology

Oxygen blew up ancient amoebas

Single-celled creatures' size spiked as oxygen levels rose.

Health & Medicine

A mind for optimism

When predicting the risk of unfortunate events, people heed positive news better than ill tidings.

Earth

Trees have a tipping point

Satellite data confirm that the amount of forest cover can shift suddenly in response to relatively small changes in fire frequency and rainfall.