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Animals

Cats drink using lap-and-gulp trick

Felines imbibe by pulling up a column of fluid and then snatching a bit of it before it splashes back down.

Psychology

Many unhappy returns for wandering minds

A cell phone–based survey finds that people frequently feel worse when their minds wander than when they focus on the moment.

Health & Medicine

Fructose poses gout risks even in women

Soft drinks are an even more potent source of the fat-generating sugar than had been thought, new research shows.

Health & Medicine

Laptops and infertility: It matters how you sit

Men who keep their legs together while using the computers generate more sperm-endangering scrotal heat than those who splay them, a study finds.

Space

Milky Way’s black hole may blow bubbles

Astronomers have discovered two giant blobs of gamma ray–emitting gas above and below the galaxy’s center.

Animals

Acidification may halve coral class of 2050

Already shown to be a threat to established reefs, experiments show that changing ocean chemistry also threatens the establishment and survival of larvae.

Earth

Mining the maritime past for clues to climate’s future

Researchers collect data through a mashup of 19th century ship records and 21st century crowdsourcing.

Earth

Hurricane forecasts can be made years in advance

Climate modelers say they can push Atlantic predictions beyond a single season.

Life

The sandman gene

Researchers find another genetic variant linked to sleep duration.