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Neuroscience

Young rats that use their brain keep more cells alive

Learning a task helps just-born cells survive in a learning and memory center of the rat brain.

Physics

Exciton

Getting excited can kick a person’s energy to a higher level. At the nanoscale, strange almost-particles called excitons do the same trick.

Psychology

Basketball players richly rewarded for selfishness in playoffs

Future paychecks trip up teamwork in NBA championship tournament.

Paleontology

Loblolly sets record for biggest genome

At 20 billion base pairs, the loblolly pine is the largest genome sequenced to date.

Science & Society

Anti-leukemia vaccine reported hope of future

Fifty years ago, Science News Letter reported on the promise of a vaccine to prevent leukemia. No preventive vaccine has come to pass, but leukemia vaccines as treatments has yielded promising results.

Animals

Bird mimicry lets hustlers keep cheating

Drongos are false alarm specialists that borrow other species’ warning sounds and freshen up their fraud.

Microbes

Viruses buoy life at hydrothermal vents

Using hijacked genes, deep-sea viruses help sulfur-eating bacteria generate power in the plumes of hydrothermal vents.

Neuroscience

Humans can sniff out gender

A new study adds to controversy of whether people have pheromones.

Animals

Caiman tears make a salty snack

An ecologist observed a bee and a butterfly hovering around a caiman, engaging in lacryphagous behavior, slurping up the crocodilian’s tears.

Health & Medicine

Drug resistance has gone global, WHO says

World Health Organization reports that antibiotics are failing worldwide against infections.

Health & Medicine

With help from pig tissue, people regrow muscle

Noncellular material implanted in patients attracts stem cells to fix injuries.

Astronomy

Exoplanet spin measured for first time

Astronomers measure the spin of a planet outside our solar system, and its days are short: just over eight hours.