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Magazine
In the June 24 SN: Unlikely worlds around dim red stars, bacteria to the rescue, flamingos’ balancing act, Jupiter up close, hominid origins revisited, spacetime shakes again, ladybug wing origami and more.
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Feature
Gun research faces roadblocks and a dearth of data
05/03/2016 - 15:00 Science & Society, Mental Health, HealthBuying a handgun in Connecticut means waiting — lots of waiting. First comes an eight-hour safety course. Then picking up an application at a local police department. Review of the application (which includes a background check and fingerprinting) can take up to eight weeks. If approved, the state issues a temporary permit, which the buyer trades in at state police headquarters for a permanent...
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Feature
Getting creative to cut methane from cows
11/18/2015 - 16:36 Animals, Microbes, ClimateView the video
In a pasture outside Edmonton, Canada, you’ll find a few dozen cows doing what cows do: mostly eating. The average animal spends eight-plus hours a day filling its belly, or as is the case with cows, bellies. Along with that enormous appetite, cows are born with the ability to digest almost any plant they can chew, thanks to a multichambered stomach and a helpful army of...
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News
Mission to Pluto: Live coverage
07/15/2015 - 17:39 Planetary ScienceThe New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto at 7:49 a.m. EDT on July 14, 2015. Astronomy writer Christopher Crockett wrote several updates from mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md., from July 12-15, and reviewed some of the mission's major milestones from the last several months. Check our Mission to Pluto editor’s pick for the latest on New Horizons...
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Feature
Rendezvous with Pluto
06/12/2015 - 11:55 Planetary Science, AstronomyView timeline
Tiny, far-flung Pluto is about to have a visitor — at least for a few hours.
On July 14, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will reach the dwarf planet and try to learn all it can about Pluto and its five known moons. Then the probe will leave Pluto behind, vanishing into the frigid darkness beyond the planets.
In its wake, New Horizons will introduce Earth to the...
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Scicurious
There’s more than one way to persuade people to vaccinate
02/19/2015 - 16:14 HealthMeasles used to sound like such an old-fashioned disease. But the current Disneyland measles outbreak has put it back in the news, with 141 cases reported so far this year in 17 states and the District of Columbia. While the outbreak has some parents who formerly delayed or refused to vaccinate racing to the clinic, others are becoming more entrenched in their belief that vaccination is both...
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Feature
Online causes may attract more clicks than commitments
06/27/2014 - 14:04 Psychology, Networks, Science & SocietyThe Save Darfur Cause on Facebook had all the makings of a slam dunk cyber success. More than a million people joined the social media site’s digital movement a few years ago to save the people of Sudan’s Darfur region from mass slaughter.
There was a hitch in Facebook’s humanitarian giddy-up, though: The vast majority of people who enlisted in the Save Darfur Cause recruited no one...
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News
Sun shines new life on Kepler space telescope
05/23/2014 - 13:10 Exoplanets, AstronomyReports of Kepler’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
NASA’s flagship planet hunter, which netted nearly 1,000 confirmed exoplanets during its four-year mission, is getting a second chance at life with a little help from the sun. The space agency has given the new mission, dubbed K2, the go-ahead to start observations at the end of May.
Kepler was knocked out of commission last...
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Feature
The long and winding Colorado
01/10/2014 - 14:00 Earth, Planetary ScienceStanding on a mesa high above the town of Rifle, Colo., Andres Aslan is having a hard time staying quiet. The lanky geologist from nearby Colorado Mesa University normally speaks in a low-key professorial drone. But here, looking down at a sprawling river valley blazing with autumnal cottonwoods, his enthusiasm cranks up his volume. “This could be it,” says Aslan, gesticulating wildly. “This...
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Feature
Deep network
10/04/2013 - 15:00 Earth, TechnologyGas bubbles effervesce from a mound of muck on the seafloor in a deep submarine canyon off the west coast of Canada. Microbes beneath the sediment belch the bubbles after feasting on the ancient remains of algae, sea critters and their poop: a primordial stew that’s been simmering since long before humans walked the Earth.
This gassy oasis attracts an odd collection of critters. Worms...
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Feature
The Digital Camera Revolution
01/13/2012 - 06:54Take a grainy, blurred image of a formless face or an illegible license plate, and with a few keystrokes the picture sharpens and the killer is caught — if you’re a crime-scene tech on TV. From Harrison Ford in Blade Runner to CSI, Criminal Minds and NCIS, the zoom-and-enhance maneuver has become such a staple of Hollywood dramas that it’s mocked with video montages on YouTube.
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