Vol. 188 No. 2
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More Stories from the July 25, 2015 issue

  1. Astronomy

    Distant galaxy may contain primeval stars

    A stockpile of the first generation of stars might be lighting up gas in a galaxy that existed roughly 800 million years after the Big Bang.

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  2. Earth

    Most of Earth’s impact craters await discovery

    Hundreds of undiscovered impact craters probably dot Earth’s surface, new research estimates.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Curtailing calories on a schedule yields health benefits

    Eating an extreme low-calorie diet that mimics fasting just a few consecutive days a month may yield a bounty of health benefits, research suggests.

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  4. Anthropology

    Kennewick Man’s DNA links him to present-day Native Americans

    Genetic analysis of Kennewick Man suggests that the ancient Pacific Northwest man was most closely related to modern Native Americans, not Polynesians.

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  5. Earth

    Fast-spreading crack threatens giant Antarctic ice shelf

    A fast-spreading crack threatens Larsen C, one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves, satellite data suggest.

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  6. Astronomy

    Dark galaxies grow in abundance

    Nearly 1,000 shadowy galaxies lurk in a nearby cluster, some of which are as massive as the Milky Way and yet have only 0.1 percent the number of stars.

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  7. Life

    How vitamin B12 makes pimples pop up

    Vitamin B12 causes acne by altering metabolism of skin bacteria.

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  8. Genetics

    Ivory DNA pinpoints poaching hot spots

    Genetic analysis of ivory DNA reveals major poaching hot spots in Africa.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Switching off nerve cells eases asthma attacks

    A drug that numbs nerve cells in mice’s airways offers a new way to ease the effects of an asthma attack.

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  10. Psychology

    Music to just about everyone’s ears

    Common elements of music worldwide point to its central role in group cohesion.

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  11. Animals

    Heat turns wild genetic male reptiles into functional females

    Genetic male bearded dragons changed to females by overheating in the wild can still breed successfully.

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  12. Neuroscience

    Wrinkled brain mimics crumpled paper

    Brains crumple up just like wads of paper, a new study suggests.

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  13. Science & Society

    How English became science’s lingua franca

    A new book explores the roles of war, politics and economics in the rise of English in scientific communication.

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  14. Planetary Science

    Evidence mounts for active volcanoes on Venus

    The Venus Express orbiter detected possible signs of active volcanism on the planet next door.

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  15. Animals

    Unpredictable egg scramble throws off parasitic parents

    Eggs of some species of warbler and weaver birds appear to have individual signatures, which can help distinguish them from the eggs of parasitic cuckoos.

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  16. Tech

    Flame-finding pistols set off decades of blazing technology

    Researchers unveiled a gun-shaped flame detector in 1965

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  17. Life

    A downy killer wages chemical warfare

    The common fungus Beauveria bassiana makes white downy corpses of its victims.

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  18. Neuroscience

    Homunculus reimagined

    A new study pinpoints the part of the brain that controls the neck muscles, tweaking the motor homunculus.

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  19. Physics

    The arrow of time

    Gravity may explain how time always runs forward, even though the laws of physics should permit it to run backward.

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  20. Neuroscience

    Special Report: Dimensions of Time

    Science News writers report on the latest scientific investigations into time’s place in the physical, biological and mental worlds.

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