Laurel Hamers
Laurel Hamers was the general assignment reporter at Science News.
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All Stories by Laurel Hamers
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Health & Medicine
50 years later, vaccines have eliminated some diseases
Vaccines have come a long way in 50 years.
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Life
Scientists need to redraw picture of cell’s biggest organelle
A close-up view of the cell’s endoplasmic reticulum reveals a different structure.
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Life
Virus triggers immune proteins to aid enemy
Virus-fighting proteins in the immune system can sometimes help out their targets instead.
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Genetics
Big biological datasets map life’s networks
Expanding from genomics to multi-omics means stretching data capacity, but it may lead to a future of early diagnosis, personalized medicine and hardy crops.
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Ecosystems
‘Citizen Scientist’ exalts ordinary heroes in conservation science
Journalist Mary Ellen Hannibal’s “Citizen Scientist” tells tales of ordinary people contributing to science.
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Computing
AI system learns like a human, stores info like a computer
A new artificial neural network hooked up to extra memory can learn to solve complex problems.
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Computing
AI system learns like a human, stores info like a computer
A new artificial neural network hooked up to extra memory can learn to solve complex problems.
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Life
One-celled life possessed tools for going multicellular
Unicellular ancestors of animals had molecular tools used by multicellular life.
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Neuroscience
Nerve cell migration after birth may explain infant brain’s flexibility
A large group of neurons migrates into babies’ frontal lobes after birth.
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Health & Medicine
Deciphering cell’s recycling machinery earns Nobel
The 2016 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his work on autophagy, a process that cells use to break down old parts for future use.
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Health & Medicine
Japanese scientist wins Nobel for revealing secrets of cellular recycling
Discovering how cells act as mini recycling plants wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi.
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Plants
Narrowed plumbing lets flower survive summer cold snaps
Ice barriers help alpine plants save their flowers during summer cold snaps.