Vol. 193 No. 3

Reviews & Previews

Science Visualized

Notebook

Features

More Stories from the February 17, 2018 issue

  1. daphnia
    Climate

    Rising CO2 in lakes could keep water fleas from raising their spiky defenses

    Rising CO2 in freshwaters may change how predators and prey interact in lakes.

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  2. Two brothers mummies
    Anthropology

    DNA solves the mystery of how these mummies were related

    Two ancient Egyptian mummies known as the Two Brothers had the same mother, but different dads.

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  3. woman in labor
    Health & Medicine

    Evidence grows that normal childbirth takes longer than we thought

    Another study finds that labor lasts longer than is traditionally taught — an insight that could mean fewer unnecessary cesarean deliveries.

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  4. Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers
    Anthropology

    Hunter-gatherer lifestyle could help explain superior ability to ID smells

    Hunter-gatherers in the forests of the Malay Peninsula prove more adept at naming smells than their rice-farming neighbors, possibly because of their foraging culture.

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  5. E. coli colony
    Microbes

    The secret to icky, sticky bacterial biofilms lies in the microbes’ cellulose

    Bacteria use a modified form of cellulose to form sticky networks that can coat various surfaces.

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  6. sparrow
    Life

    Light pollution can prolong the risk of sparrows passing along West Nile virus

    Nighttime lighting prolongs time that birds can pass along virus to mosquitoes that bite people.

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  7. mouse nerve cells
    Neuroscience

    Cilia in the brain may be busier than previously thought

    A hairlike appendage sticking out of brain cells may be much more important in the brain than scientists realized.

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  8. map of flu activity
    Health & Medicine

    New twist on a flu vaccine revs up the body’s army of virus killers

    A new approach to flu vaccine development makes influenza virus extra sensitive to a powerful antiviral system.

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  9. Mars
    Planetary Science

    Massive dust storms are robbing Mars of its water

    Mars was once lush with water. A new analysis of Martian climate data shows a mechanism that might have helped dehydrate the planet.

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  10. supermassive black hole illustration
    Astronomy

    Mysterious high-energy particles could come from black hole jets

    Three types of high-energy cosmic particles could all have the same source: black holes in galaxy clusters.

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  11. illustration of neutron star collision
    Astronomy

    The X-ray glow keeps growing after the recent neutron star collision

    X-rays from a neutron star collision have been getting brighter, and scientists are debating why.

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  12. illustration of hellscape
    Earth

    Life may have been possible in Earth’s earliest, most hellish eon

    Heat from asteroid bombardment during Earth’s earliest eon wasn’t too intense for life to exist on the planet, a new study suggests.

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  13. genetically identical cloned monkeys
    Genetics

    Baby macaques are the first primates to be cloned like Dolly the Sheep

    Scientists have cloned two baby macaque monkeys with the same technique used to clone Dolly. The research could help advance the cloning of other species.

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  14. 3-D laser image
    Tech

    Lasers trace a new way to create hovering hologram-like images

    Hovering 3-D images pave the way for futuristic displays that could be used for education or entertainment.

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  15. saiga
    Animals

    Here’s why so many saiga antelope mysteriously died in 2015

    Higher than normal temperatures turned normally benign bacteria lethal, killing hundreds of thousands of the saiga antelopes.

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  16. ITER fusion reactor
    Physics

    50 years on, nuclear fusion still hasn’t delivered clean energy

    In 1968, scientists predicted that the world would soon use nuclear fusion as an energy source.

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  17. thinking robot
    Artificial Intelligence

    ‘Machines That Think’ predicts the future of artificial intelligence

    In a new book, an artificial intelligence expert explores AI’s past, present and future.

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