Vol. 190 No. 1

Reviews & Previews

Science Visualized

Notebook

Features

More Stories from the July 9, 2016 issue

  1. OxyContin
    Neuroscience

    Morphine may make pain last longer

    Instead of busting pain, morphine lengthened the duration of pain in rats with a nerve injury.

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  2. Flames of fire
    Archaeology

    Earliest evidence of fire making in Europe found

    Clues to Stone Age fire making surface in a Spanish cave.

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  3. Maps of Jupiter
    Planetary Science

    Jupiter’s stormy weather no tempest in teapot

    New radio observations reveal how ammonia moves about beneath Jupiter’s clouds and provide a sneak peek at what NASA’s Juno mission will learn later this year.

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  4. dogs
    Genetics

    Ancient DNA tells of two origins for dogs

    Genetic analysis of an ancient Irish mutt reveals complicated history of dog domestication.

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  5. Bikini Atoll Testing
    Environment

    Bikini Atoll radiation levels remain alarmingly high

    Lingering radiation levels from nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll are far higher than previously estimated.

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  6. Squid
    Life

    By leaking light, squid hides in plain sight

    Glass squid camouflage their eyes with wonderfully inefficient bioluminescence.

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  7. prehobbit reconstructuon and fossils
    Anthropology

    Hobbit history gets new preface

    Jaw, tooth fossils put new spin on evolution of Homo floresiensis.

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  8. rat eating
    Life

    Obesity’s weight gain message starts in gut

    Acetate made by gut microbes stimulates weight gain, research in rodents suggests.

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  9. diagrams of mouse paths
    Neuroscience

    Abnormal sense of touch may play role in autism

    Autism-related genes are important for touch perception, a sense that may help the brain develop normally, a study of mice suggests.

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  10. Synechococcus cyanobacteria
    Ecosystems

    Ocean plankton held hostage by pirate viruses

    The most abundant photosynthesizers on Earth stop storing carbon when they catch a virus.

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  11. Iceland rocks
    Climate

    Volcanic rocks help turn carbon emissions to stone — and fast

    A pilot program in Iceland that injected carbon dioxide into basaltic lava rocks turned more than 95 percent of the greenhouse gas into stone within two years.

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  12. White Cliffs of Dover
    Astronomy

    Limestone world gobbled by planet-eating white dwarf

    Debris from a shredded planet points to a world that was once covered in calcium carbonate.

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  13. two spiraling black holes
    Physics

    Second gravitational wave signal detected

    LIGO has spotted a second set of ripples in the fabric of spacetime.

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  14. gas cloud with molecular structure
    Astronomy

    Molecular handedness found in space

    Propylene oxide in an interstellar cloud sets up a testing ground for understanding why life chooses one type of mirror-image molecule over another.

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  15. pregnant woman's belly
    Health & Medicine

    Zika infection late in pregnancy may be not so risky

    An early report out of Colombia finds no microcephaly in babies born to a group of pregnant women infected with Zika virus during the third trimester.

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  16. Altair
    Astronomy

    Bulging stars mess with planet’s seasons

    On planets orbiting rapidly rotating stars, the seasons can get a little strange.

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  17. Gun sounds
    Physics

    Sounds from gunshots may help solve crimes

    Sound wave analysis may help forensic scientists figure out what types of guns were fired at a crime scene.

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  18. Ancient wine jug
    Archaeology

    Ancient Europeans may have been first wine makers

    A new chemical analysis uncovers the earliest known wine making in Europe.

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  19. Machairoceratops cronusi and Spiclypeus shipporum
    Animals

    Two newly identified dinosaurs donned weird horns

    Two newly discovered relatives of Triceratops had unusual head adornments — even for horned dinosaurs.

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  20. Shark snout
    Materials Science

    Shark jelly is strong proton conductor

    A jelly found in sharks and skates, which helps them sense electric fields, is a strong proton conductor.

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  21. illustration of LISA Pathfinder
    Astronomy

    Space-based probe passes tests for gravitational wave detection

    The LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated that future observatories in space could detect gravitational waves.

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  22. urban great tit
    Animals

    City living shortens great tits’ telomeres

    Great tits raised in urban nests have shorter protective caps on their chromosomes than those raised in rural nests.

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  23. periodic table
    Chemistry

    Four newest elements on periodic table get names

    Four elements officially recognized in December, highlighted in yellow, now have names that honor Japan, Moscow, Tennessee and physicist Yuri Oganessian.

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