Neuroscience
Website invites you to probe a 3-D human brain
Getting up close to the human brain is easy with BrainFacts.org’s interactive organ.
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Cover Story
How to keep humans from ruining the search for life on Mars
As the race to put humans on Mars heats up, researchers worry they are running out of time to find life on the Red planet.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Physics
How freezing a soap bubble turns it into a ‘snow globe’
Frigid air makes soap bubbles shimmering orbs thanks to surface tension.
Notebook
Paleontology
This new dinosaur species was one odd duck
Weird dino swimmer had flipperlike limbs and a swanlike neck.
Features
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Hormone replacement makes sense for some menopausal women
For healthy women within 10 years of menopause, the benefits of hormone therapy for relief of hot flashes or other symptoms may outweigh the risks.
More Stories from the January 20, 2018 issue
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AnimalsScallops’ amazing eyes use millions of tiny, square crystals to see
Each of a scallop’s many eyes contains an intricate mirror made from millions of crystals.
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PhysicsIn a first, Galileo’s gravity experiment is re-created in space
A key principle of general relativity holds up in a new space-based test.
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Health & MedicineWhat hospitals can do to help keep excess opioids out of communities
Guidelines for prescribing opioids following a routine surgery prevented thousands of unnecessary pills from leaving the hospital, a new study finds.
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PhysicsSome high-temperature superconductors might not be so odd after all
Unusual high-temperature superconductors might be explained by standard superconductivity theory.
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GeneticsCRISPR/Cas9 can reverse multiple diseases in mice
A new gene therapy uses CRISPR/Cas9 to turn on dormant genes.
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Health & MedicineWhen tumors fuse with blood vessels, clumps of breast cancer cells can spread
Breast cancer tumors may merge with blood vessels to help the cancer spread.
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LifeMini brains may wrinkle and fold just like ours
Brain organoids show how ridges and wrinkles may form.
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LifeNot all of a cell’s protein-making machines do the same job
Ribosomes may switch up their components to specialize in building proteins.
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Planetary ScienceJupiter’s massive Great Red Spot is at least 350 kilometers deep
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has measured the depth of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot for the first time.
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TechElectric eels provide a zap of inspiration for a new kind of power source
Battery-like devices inspired by electric eels could someday power wearable and implantable tech or soft robots.
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EarthFederal maps underestimate flood risk for tens of millions of people, scientists warn
New flood maps suggest that the U.S. government underestimates how many people live in floodplains.
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Health & MedicineFracking linked to low birth weight in Pennsylvania babies
Babies born to moms living within one kilometer of a hydraulic fracturing site were more likely to be born underweight, researchers say.
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Planetary ScienceSaturn’s rings are surprisingly young and may be from shredded moons
Final data from the Cassini spacecraft put a date and a mass on the gas giant’s iconic rings.
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AstronomyAI has found an 8-planet system like ours in Kepler data
An AI spotted an eighth planet circling a distant star, unseating the solar system as the sole record-holder for most known planets.
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AnimalsSpecialized protein helps these ground squirrels resist the cold
A less active cold-sensing protein explains, in part, why some hibernating ground squirrels are more tolerant of chilly conditions than the animals’ nonhibernating kin.
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LifeA deadly fungus is infecting snake species seemingly at random
A fungal disease doesn’t appear to discriminate among snake species, suggesting many of the reptiles may be at risk.