Vol. 182 No. #4
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More Stories from the August 25, 2012 issue

  1. Physics

    How to walk on water

    Physicists use X-rays to probe how a fluid can support a person's weight.

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  2. Life

    Study shows where identical twins part ways

    By birth, genetic doubles are already using their DNA differently.

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  3. Humans

    Mideast violence goes way back

    One-quarter of skulls excavated in troubled region display injuries from clubs or other weapons.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Sperm analyzed, one by one

    A close look at the sex cell’s DNA reveals basic molecular processes.

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  5. Math

    Test decodes dolphins’ math skills

    Dolphins could use mental math to locate prey in clouds of bubbles.

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  6. Life

    Little animals spread sperm for smelly mosses

    Sex-specific odors may entice springtails to kick off fertilization.

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  7. Life

    Fake jellyfish so real it even swims

    Constructed of silicone and heart cells, medusoid moves like the real thing.

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  8. Life

    Polar bears’ ancient roots pushed way back

    Full genetic blueprints suggest the animals split from brown bears millions of years ago.

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  9. Earth

    Night lights may foster depression

    In animals, chronic dim light triggers brain changes that disappear with the return of nightlong darkness.

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  10. Humans

    Altruistic kidney donors help many

    Mass exchanges result in more kidneys for difficult-to-match recipients.

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  11. Earth

    External ills imperil tropical reserves

    Impacts just outside park boundaries cause ecosystems within to decline.

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  12. Earth

    Stronger storms may destroy ozone

    Extra water vapor churned high into the atmosphere by climate change–fueled tempests could trigger destructive chemical reactions.

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  13. Health & Medicine

    Male circumcision tied to lower HIV prevalence

    Clinical programs in eastern and southern Africa also seem to be changing people’s views on the operation.

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  14. Health & Medicine

    19th International AIDS Conference

    Highlights from the AIDS meeting, July 22-27, Washington, D.C.

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  15. Anthropology

    Sticks, stones and bones reveal emergence of a hunter-gatherer culture

    A cave in southern Africa was occupied by people very much like those living in the region today.

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  16. Earth

    Greenland enters melt mode

    This year’s record-breaking island-wide thaw punctuates an ongoing warming trend.

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  17. Planetary Science

    Wheels down, Mars rover takes in the view

    After a safe landing, NASA’s Curiosity begins transmitting images back to Earth.

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  18. Saving primates with a dog and scat

    View the video Graduate student Joseph Orkin, left, follows canine field assistant Pinkerton on a hunt for primate poop. Sun Guo-Zheng Joseph Orkin has found an unusual way to study highly endangered — and highly elusive — primates in southwestern China. Orkin hikes into isolated mountaintop forests accompanied by a four-legged assistant who avidly sniffs out scat left by […]

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  19. Science Future for August 25, 2012

    September 13 Take a swig of beer science at the Museum of Life + Science in Durham, N.C. Event will include samples of 10 local beers plus a chance to learn about beer chemistry and physics. See bit.ly/SFncbeer September 15 Visit the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago for an inside look at the lab’s energy […]

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  20. SN Online

    ON THE SCENE BLOG The man at the rover lab’s helm talks to Science News. See “A lifetime of curiosity: An interview with JPL director Charles Elachi.” Courtesy Helmut Tischlinger, Eichstätt Museum of the Jurassic LIFE An unusually well-preserved fossil suggests dino ancestors were fluffy. Read “All dinosaurs may have had feathers.” HUMANS DNA tracks […]

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  21. Health & Medicine

    No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses

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  22. Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain: How to Retrain Your Brain to Overcome Pessimism and Achieve a More Positive Outlook by Elaine Fox

    An overview of recent research suggests ways to take advantage of the brain’s malleability to change patterns of thinking. Basic Books, 2012, 256 p., $26.99

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  23. Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff and Tony Angell

    Tales of crows’ amazing feats are complemented by original artwork in this look at the birds’ intelligence. Free Press, 2012, 289 p., $25

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  24. Gravity: How the Weakest Force in the Universe Shaped Our Lives by Brian Clegg

    A history of attempts to understand the universe’s most mysterious force also explores gravity’s importance in people’s everyday lives.St. Martin’s, 2012, 336 p., $25.99

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  25. Is American Science in Decline? By Yu Xie and Alexandra A. Killewald

    Two sociologists look at fears of falling be­hind the global competition and find that U.S. research is changing but is still in good health. Harvard Univ., 2012, 230 p., $45

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  26. 101 American Geo-Sites You’ve Gotta See (Geology Underfoot) by Albert B. Dickas

    This handy guide has plenty of labeled photos and diagrams to help you find geological sites of interest in all 50 states. Mountain Press, 2012, 250 p., $24

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  27. Health & Medicine

    19th International AIDS Conference

    Highlights from the AIDS meeting, July 22-27, Washington, D.C.

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  28. Himalaya Rush

    Scientists scurry to figure out the status of glaciers on the roof of the world

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  29. Tangled Roots

    Mingling among Stone Age peoples muddies humans’ evolutionary story.

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  30. Uncommon Carriers

    People have a surprising number of rare genetic variants.

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  31. Letters

    Higgs affects inertia, not gravity In the articles on the Higgs field in the July 28 issue, the Higgs boson was described as giving rise to the mass and therefore the inertia of particles, and the articles said the Higgs causes particles to “resist motion.” Newton’s first law states that inertia or mass is the […]

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  32. Science Past from the issue of August 25, 1962

    RUBY LASER PIERCES A SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL — A pulsed ruby laser piercing a sapphire crystal is shown on this week’s front cover. The laser at the Radio Corporation of America Laboratories in Princeton, N.J., generates energy so intense that it can bore a sixteenth of an inch hole in the sapphire in a thousandth of […]

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  33. BOOK REVIEW: The Marvelous Learning Animal: What Makes Human Nature Unique

    Review by Bruce Bower.

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