Vol. 185 No. 1
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Features

  • The vast virome

    When it comes to the microbiome, bacteria get all the press. But virologists are starting to realize that their subjects also do a lot more than make people sick.

  • Mother lode

    Certain sugar molecules in human breast milk do more to foster beneficial microbes, and banish harmful ones, than they do to nourish newborns.

More Stories from the January 11, 2014 issue

  1. Health & Medicine

    Thalidomide treats Crohn’s disease

    Study of children with the inflammatory bowel disorder raises possibility of new use for tainted drug.

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  2. Neuroscience

    Fear can be inherited

    Parents’ and even grandparents’ experiences echo in offspring, a study of mice finds.

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  3. Animals

    Insect form of sexual frustration takes toll

    Smelling female fruit flies but not mating with them can actually shorten males’ lives.

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  4. Life

    To cook up life, just add citrate

    The theory that RNA spawned the first organisms gets a boost from a common compound.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Moon wears dusty cloak

    Old data from Apollo missions stir up debate about speed of lunar dust accumulation.

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  6. Genetics

    Evolution of venom, binge eating seen in snake DNA

    Python and cobra genes evolved quickly to enable hunting strategies.

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  7. Animals

    How the ghost shark lost its stomach

    The lack of a digestive organ in fish and other animals is linked to genetics.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Cell counts provide a read on ovarian cancer

    New technology might discern which tumors are most dangerous and help guide treatment.

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  9. Life

    Autism may have link to chemicals made by gut microbes

    Beneficial bacteria improved abnormal behaviors in mice with altered intestines.

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  10. Astronomy

    Sun’s rotation driven by enormous plasma flows

    Long-lasting plasma flows 15 times the diameter of Earth transport heat from the sun’s depths to its surface, helping explain solar rotation.

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  11. Math

    Twin primes and prime bunches in mathematicians’ crosshairs

    For second time this year, a mathematician makes a major advance toward proving a long-standing conjecture.

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  12. Astronomy

    Saturn’s six-sided cloud pattern gets a close look

    New images show particles in the planet’s hexagonally shaped jet stream.

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  13. Humans

    Fossils reveal a strong-armed, dead-end hominid

    Olduvai Gorge finds suggest extinct hominid both walked and hung out in trees.

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  14. Animals

    Flightless birds face extinction

    New Zealand’s flightless birds have limped through the last few decades, but conservation efforts have had some success.

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  15. Physics

    Tea time

    Leave it to the English to solve the mystery of a tea kettle’s whistle.

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