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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Animals

    What parrots can teach us about human intelligence

    By studying the brains and behaviors of parrots, scientists hope to learn more about how humanlike intelligence evolves.

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  2. Planetary Science

    NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter officially ends its mission on Mars

    NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter suffered damage during a recent flight and has ended its mission on Mars after nearly three years on the Red Planet.

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  3. Physics

    What happens when lawn sprinklers suck in water? Physicists answer that quirky question

    Experiments with a floating sprinkler and laser-illuminated microparticles revealed the surprisingly complex physics behind a simple question.

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  4. Life

    Some honeybees in Italy regularly steal pollen off the backs of bumblebees

    New observations suggest that honeybees stealing pollen from bumblebees may be a crime of opportunity, though documentation of it remains rare.

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  5. Climate

    Numbats are built to hold heat, making climate change extra risky for the marsupials

    New thermal imaging shows how fast numbats’ surface temperature rises even at relatively reasonable temperatures.

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  6. Physics

    Invisible comet tails of mucus slow sinking flakes of ‘marine snow’

    New measurements reveal the gunk that surrounds the particles, an important factor in understanding how the ocean sequesters carbon.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Flint grapples with the mental health fallout from the water disaster

    The water crisis started almost a decade ago. Residents of Flint, Mich., are still healing from the disaster — and caring for their own.

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  8. Animals

    How hummingbirds fly through spaces too narrow for their wings

    Using high-speed cameras, a new study reveals Anna’s hummingbirds turn sideways to shimmy through gaps half as wide as their wingspan.

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  9. Animals

    Fake fog, ‘re-skinning’ and ‘sea-weeding’ could help coral reefs survive

    Coral reefs are in global peril, but scientists around the world are working hard to find ways to help them survive the Anthropocene.

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  10. Planetary Science

    In a first, astronomers spot the afterglow of an exoplanet collision

    A surge of infrared light from a remote star might have been a glow cast by the vaporized leftovers of an impact between Neptune-sized worlds.

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  11. Antimatter falls like matter, upholding Einstein’s theory of gravity

    In a first, scientists dropped antihydrogen atoms and measured how they fell.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    How brain implants are treating depression

    This six-part series follows people whose lives have been changed by an experimental treatment called deep brain stimulation.

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