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  1. Basic research generates jobs and competitiveness

    Trained as a mechanical engineer in India, Subra Suresh researched the interfaces between engineering, biology and materials science before becoming dean of engineering at MIT and, as of October, director of the U.S. National Science Foundation. In February in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Suresh […]

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Body & Brain

    The brain 'sees' Braille, plus engineered urethras and baseball practice swings in this week's news.

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  3. Humans

    In-laws transformed early human society

    A study of today's hunter-gatherers finds marital relationships help spread a social fabric.

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  4. Chemistry

    Light-sensor pulls perplexing double duty

    A long-studied eye pigment appears to also detect temperature, a study in fruit flies shows.

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  5. Physics

    Tractor beams arrive two centuries early

    Trekkie devices that can pull instead of push have been developed by U.S. and Chinese physicists to move small objects.

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  6. Life

    Life

    Chimps are righties and orangutans lefties, plus singing mice and chilly dinosaurs in this week's news.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Digging into the roots of lupus

    Two new studies implicate common white blood cells called neutrophils in this autoimmune disease.

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  8. Humans

    Missing bits of DNA may define humans

    Genetic information lost along the way may have led to bigger brains and spineless penises, among other traits.

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  9. Life

    Anxiety switch makes mice shy no more

    Brain-control experiments could help shed light on psychiatric disorders

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  10. Space

    Atom & Cosmos

    Buckyballs may abound in space, plus the latest on planets and solar siblings in this week's news.

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  11. Life

    Help, elephants need somebody

    In pull-together tests, pachyderms are on par with chimps in understanding the basics of cooperation.

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  12. Physics

    Soot hastens snowmelt on Tibetan Plateau

    Black carbon pollution is a more potent driver of melting in the region than increases in carbon dioxide, a new computer simulation suggests.

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