Vol. 183 No. #8
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More Stories from the April 20, 2013 issue

  1. Health & Medicine

    News in Brief: HIV may increase heart attack risk

    A large study of veterans shows connection between HIV and heart attack in men.

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  2. Chemistry

    Caffeine’s buzz attracts bees to flowers

    Nectar of some blooms carries the drug, which improves bee memory.

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  3. Neuroscience

    Heavy drinkers get extra brain fuel from alcohol

    Compared with the brains of light drinkers, the brains of heavy alcohol drinkers burn acetate better.

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  4. Humans

    Ancient people and Neandertals were extreme travelers

    Stone Age folk were built for journeying farther than even the most active individuals today.

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  5. Tech

    Facebook ‘likes’ can reveal users’ politics, sexual orientation, IQ

    With data from thousands of volunteers, researchers connect social media activity to personal traits.

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  6. Life

    Tasmanian devil disease reveals its secrets

    The contagious cancer evades the animal’s immune system by turning off key genes.

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  7. Tech

    Plastic implant replaces three-quarters of man’s skull

    The polymer cranium was made using a 3-D printer.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Heart benefits from quitting smoking outweigh weight gain

    People who give up cigarettes have fewer heart problems despite gaining weight.

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  9. Humans

    Disputed finds put humans in South America 22,000 years ago

    Brazilian site may have been home to people before the Clovis hunters.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Bee venom component might offer HIV protection

    A toxin delivered by nanoparticles stops the virus in a lab study.

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  11. Life

    Shorter-winged swallows evolve around highways

    In survey along Nebraska roads, number of birds killed by cars has plummeted over 30 years.

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  12. Earth

    Extreme storm surges may occur more often

    Climate simulations suggest hurricane-caused flooding will increase in frequency as temperatures warm.

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  13. Tech

    Cell phone data analysis dials in crime networks

    A new program mines mobile provider records for suspicious patterns.

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  14. Life

    Giant squid population is one big happy species

    Elusive deep ocean dwellers have low genetic diversity despite living around the globe.

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  15. Life

    Disease threatens garden impatiens

    Surprising scientists, once-mild downy mildew has struck the popular blooms in 33 states.

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  16. Physics

    Universe is a teeny bit older than thought

    Planck satellite reveals information from just after the Big Bang, largely confirming scientists' theories.

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  17. Psychology

    Early malnutrition bodes ill for adult personality

    Undernourishment in first year of life may destabilize personality decades later.

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  18. Earth

    Landslides detected from afar

    Seismic fingerprints can reveal that a rock avalanche has occurred in a remote location.

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  19. Health & Medicine

    Experimental malaria drug may be a hot prospect

    A synthetic compound attacks the parasite at three stages of infection, early tests show.

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  20. Physics

    Highlights from the American Physical Society meeting

    Highlights from the March meeting, held in Baltimore on March 18-22, 2013, include how fire ants need a little water to dig deep, what makes trees scream and a tiny crystal that can squeeze through an even tinier tube.

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  21. Humans

    Prisons an unlikely laboratory

    The Science Life.

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  22. Upcoming events

    Science Future for April 20, 2013.

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  23. SN Online

    BECOMING HUMANLearn how people have been driving species to extinction since the Stone Age in a new column by Erin Wayman. Rufus Isaacs LIFE Wild insects are a key to bigger harvests. See “Native pollinators boost crop yields worldwide.” SCIENCE & SOCIETYBy tracking tweets, researchers identify communities. Read “Twitter maps New York City, language by […]

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  24. Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell

    A science writer presents recent research that demonstrates a large repertoire of intellectual skills in a variety of animals. Crown, 2013, 291 p., $26

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  25. Blackett’s War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare by Stephen Budiansky

    A small group of scientists helped win World War II and changed the way wars are fought, a military historian postulates. Knopf, 2013, 336 p., $27.95

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  26. Love in the Time of Algorithms: What Technology Does to Meeting and Mating by Dan Slater

    A journalist argues that the calculations powering online dating websites are shaping the love lives of the 80 million American singles who use the services. Current, 2013, 245 p., $25.95

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  27. Wolves in the Land of Salmon by David Moskowitz

    An expert wildlife tracker paints a portrait of wolves’ lives and value to ecosystems, set against the backdrop of conflict over rising wolf populations. Timber Press, 2013, 334 p., $29.95

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  28. BOOK REVIEW: The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky

    Review by Tom Siegfried.

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  29. BOOK REVIEW: Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    Review by Bruce Bower.

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  30. Health & Medicine

    Dose of Reality

    HPV is epidemic, which is odd since it is largely preventable.

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  31. Tech

    Ignition Failed

    How America’s latest attempt at fusion power fizzled.

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  32. Letters to the Editor

    Pacing Alzheimer’s Science Stats “Alzheimer’s Advancing” (SN: 3/9/13, p. 4) reports a new analysis extrapolating from 2010 U.S. Census data that concludes Alzheimer’s disease will triple by 2050. Omitted in such an analysis is the accelerating advance of science and medicine over the next 40 years. The gloomy prediction makes little sense unless science stops […]

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  33. Transplant from the dead

    Science Past from the issue of April 20, 1963.

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  34. Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age by B. Jack Copeland

    The ideas of mathematician and computer visionary Alan Turing are explored through interviews of his friends and colleagues. Oxford Univ., 2012, 300 p., $21.95

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