Vol. 191 No. 6

Reviews & Previews

Science Visualized

Notebook

Features

More Stories from the April 1, 2017 issue

  1. Angie
    Anthropology

    Low-status chimps revealed as trendsetters

    Outranked chimpanzees trigger spread of useful new behaviors among their comrades.

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  2. testosterone test-tube
    Health & Medicine

    Questions remain about the benefits of taking testosterone

    For men with low testosterone, the pros and cons of taking hormone replacement therapy are mixed.

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  3. Neandertal brain
    Genetics

    Human genes often best Neandertal ones in brain, testes

    Differing activity of human and Neandertal versions of genes may help explain health risks.

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  4. wolbachia bacteria
    Life

    Bacteria genes offer new strategy for sterilizing mosquitoes

    Two genes in Wolbachia bacteria could be used to sterilize mosquitoes that transmit Zika.

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  5. wild elephants
    Animals

    Wild elephants clock shortest shut-eye recorded for mammals

    Among mammals, wild elephants may need the least amount of sleep, new measurements suggest.

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  6. exoplanet illustration
    Astronomy

    Hydrogen volcanoes might boost planets’ potential for life

    Volcanoes that spew hydrogen could increase the number of potentially habitable planets in the universe.

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  7. Earth's mantle
    Earth

    Earth’s mantle may be hotter than thought

    Earth’s mantle is warmer than previously thought, suggests a new experiment that better accounts for water content in rocks.

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  8. human player versus poker bot
    Computing

    Winning against a computer isn’t in the cards for poker pros

    Poker-playing computers beat professional players at heads-up no-limit Texas Hold’em.

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  9. moriche palm tree
    Ecosystems

    If you think the Amazon jungle is completely wild, think again

    Ancient Amazonians partly or fully domesticated fruit and nut trees that still dominate some forests.

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  10. illustration of galaxy dust
    Astronomy

    Astronomers detect oldest known stardust in distant galaxy

    The first stardust ever generated in the universe may have been spotted in a distant galaxy, seen as it was 600 million years after the Big Bang.

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  11. brain links
    Neuroscience

    Brain training turns recall rookies into memory masters

    Six weeks of training turned average people into memory masters, a skill reflected in their brains.

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  12. Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast
    Genetics

    Scientists move closer to building synthetic yeast from scratch

    Scientists have created five more synthetic yeast chromosomes.

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  13. monitoring soil carbon emissions
    Earth

    Warming soils may belch much more carbon

    New measurements suggest soils below 15 centimeters deep could play a sizable role in boosting carbon emissions as the planet warms.

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  14. Arizona wheat field
    Climate

    Changing climate could worsen foods’ nutrition

    Climate change could aggravate hidden hunger by sapping micronutrients from soils and plants, reducing nutrition in wheat, rice and other crops.

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  15. Euderus set wasp
    Animals

    How one enslaving wasp eats through another

    A wasp that forces oaks to grow a gall gets tricked into digging an escape tunnel for its killers.

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  16. psychedelic illustration
    Genetics

    In 1967, LSD was briefly labeled a breaker of chromosomes

    Claims that the hallucinogenic drug damaged DNA were quickly rejected. But questions remain about how LSD works.

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  17. River in Egypt
    Physics

    To understand rivers, let physics be your guide

    Where the River Flows unites physics and environmental science to explain Earth’s waterways.

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  18. Geckolepis megalepis before and after shedding scales
    Animals

    Detachable scales turn this gecko into an escape artist

    A new species of gecko evades predators by shedding its scaly armor.

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  19. upper jaw from Neandertal
    Archaeology

    Ancient dental plaque tells tales of Neandertal diet and disease

    Researchers have reconstructed the diet and disease history of ancient Neandertals.

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  20. IceCube Neutrino Laboratory
    Particle Physics

    Triplet of high-energy neutrinos detected from unknown source

    The IceCube Neutrino Observatory spotted three neutrinos within 100 seconds that seem to have come from the same place in the sky.

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  21. stethoscope on a pregnant woman's belly
    Health & Medicine

    Microcephaly, other birth defects are on the rise since Zika’s arrival

    The rate of certain birth defects is much higher in babies born to Zika-infected mothers in the United States, the CDC reports.

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  22. Saturn's moon Mimas
    Planetary Science

    Saturn’s ‘Death Star’ moon may not conceal ocean after all

    A lack of cracks on Mimas suggests that the icy moon of Saturn doesn’t conceal a subsurface ocean of liquid water.

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