Uncategorized

  1. Health & Medicine

    Going out to lunch zaps mental focus

    Sharing a midday meal with friends could lead later to errors at work.

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  2. Earth

    Magma can speed to the surface, powering volcanoes

    Fast ascent of molten rock could help scientists predict eruptions.

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  3. Planetary Science

    Saturn’s tides drive icy moon’s plumes

    Enceladus' chilly jets ebb and flow in time with its planet's tug.

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  4. Life

    Tigers meet, mix in forest corridors

    In India, narrow strips of wild land connect small groups of cats.

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  5. Animals

    Oxygen boost aided carnivore evolution in Cambrian explosion

    Atmospheric change and rise of predators caused burst in complexity of life.

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  6. Anthropology

    Mummified Incan teen drank, did drugs

    Girl, who was sacrificed, may have been sedated by alcohol, coca leaves.

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  7. Math

    Flatland and its sequel bring the math of higher dimensions to the silver screen

    In 1884, Edwin Abbott wrote a strange and enchanting novella called Flatland, in which a square who lives in a two-dimensional world comes to comprehend the existence of a third dimension but is unable to persuade his compatriots of his discovery. Through the book, Abbott skewered hierarchical Victorian values while simultaneously giving a glimpse of […]

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  8. Climate

    Wetter permafrost clings to carbon better

    In 12-year lab study, moist soil samples released less greenhouse gas as they warmed.

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  9. Letters to the editor

    Not-so-smart perception Researchers studying associations between IQ and selected visual tasks (“Less is more for smart perception,” SN: 6/29/13, p. 18) report that tracking small moving foreground objects, a task at which high-IQ subjects excelled, is often more important than detecting large-object motion or attending to background activity. They suggest that for driving or walking […]

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  10. Computing

    Forecasting by computer

    Excerpt from the August 10, 1963, issue of Science News Letter.

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  11. Neuroscience

    Brainwashed

    The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience by Sally Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld.

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  12. Genetics

    The Sports Gene

    Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein.

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