Vol. 193 No. 1

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Science Visualized

Notebook

Features

More Stories from the January 20, 2018 issue

  1. scallop eyes
    Animals

    Scallops’ 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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  2. satellite illustration
    Physics

    In 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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  3. opioid pills
    Health & Medicine

    What 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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  4. illustration of a superconductor
    Physics

    Some 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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  5. mouse muscle fibers
    Genetics

    CRISPR/Cas9 can reverse multiple diseases in mice

    A new gene therapy uses CRISPR/Cas9 to turn on dormant genes.

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  6. breast cancer cells
    Health & Medicine

    When 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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  7. brain
    Life

    Mini brains may wrinkle and fold just like ours

    Brain organoids show how ridges and wrinkles may form.

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  8. ribosome
    Life

    Not 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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  9. Jupiter
    Planetary Science

    Jupiter’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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  10. hydrogel disks
    Tech

    Electric 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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  11. flooding in Louisiana
    Earth

    Federal 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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  12. Fracking well
    Health & Medicine

    Fracking 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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  13. Saturn’s rings again
    Planetary Science

    Saturn’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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  14. Kepler 90 system
    Astronomy

    AI 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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  15. thirteen-lined ground squirrel
    Animals

    Specialized 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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  16. milk snake
    Life

    A 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.

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