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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Chemistry

    A new element on the periodic table might be within reach 

    Scientists made the known element 116 with a beam of titanium atoms, a technique that could be used to make the undiscovered element 120.

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  2. Climate

    Twisters asks if you can 'tame' a tornado. We have the answer

    Science News talked to a meteorologist and Twisters’ tornado consultant to separate fact from fiction in Hollywood’s latest extreme weather thriller.

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  3. Genetics

    Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’

    A new technique for probing the 3-D structure of ancient DNA may help scientists learn how extinct animals functioned, not just what they looked like.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    A bizarre video of eyeballs illustrates our pupils shrink with age

    Pupil size can decrease up to 0.4 millimeters per decade, hinting at why it can be increasingly harder for people to see in dim light as they age.

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  5. Life

    This protist unfolds its ‘neck’ up to 30 times its body length to scout prey

    With geometry’s help, 'Lacrymaria olor' can extend its long, necklike protrusion in less than 30 seconds.

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  6. Artificial Intelligence

    Reinforcement learning AI might bring humanoid robots to the real world

    Reinforcement learning techniques could be the keys to integrating robots — who use machine learning to output more than words — into the real world.

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  7. Animals

    Sumatran orangutans start crafting their engineering skills as infants

    By 6 months old, young orangutans are experimenting with construction materials, and by 6 years old, they are building platforms 20 meters in the air.

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  8. Animals

    Tiger beetles may weaponize ultrasound against bats

    In response to recordings of echolocating bats, tiger beetles emit noises that mimic toxic moths that bats avoid.

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  9. Animals

    Belugas may communicate by warping a blob of forehead fat

    Jiggling the “melon” like Jell-O seems to be associated with sexual behaviors, scientists say.

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  10. Humans

    Rain Bosworth studies how deaf children experience the world

    Deaf experimental psychologist Rain Bosworth has found that babies are primed to learn sign language just like spoken language.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Aimee Grant investigates the needs of autistic people

    The public health researcher focuses on what kinds of support people with autism need rather than on treating the condition as a disease to cure.

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  12. Neuroscience

    Tiny treadmills show how fruit flies walk

    A method to force fruit flies to move shows the insects’ stepping behavior and holds clues to other animals’ brains and movement.

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