Vol. 173 No. #18

More Stories from the June 7, 2008 issue

  1. Lost and found

    Former child soldiers in Africa often adjust well to community life if they receive group rehabilitation and community acceptance, studies indicate

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  2. Space

    A special place

    Two proposed studies might determine whether dark energy is real or humans live in a special place in the cosmos

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  3. Life

    It’s the network, stupid

    The complexity of humans may lie not in genes but in the web of interactions among the proteins they make.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Drugs: Still bad for you

    Heavy cannabis smokers have increased blood levels of a protein linked to heart disease.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Sharing valuable real estate

    Human brains rewire when people lose a sense, but a new study of people who have regained vision shows that the rewired areas retain their old abilities.

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  6. Life

    Identifying viable embryos

    New genetic tests to distinguish viable from nonviable embryos may help eliminate risky multiple births from fertility procedures.

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  7. Earth

    Climate clues in ice

    A kilometers-long ice core from Antarctica has been recording climate information for the past 800,000 years and has revealed a three millennia–long period when carbon dioxide levels in the air were lower than any previously measured.

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  8. Space

    A shifty moon

    Astronomers have found evidence that the icy shell of Jupiter's large moon Europa has rotated nearly a quarter-turn, which supports the notion that the moon has a subterranean ocean.

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  9. Chemistry

    Phlegmatic molecules

    Time-lapse snapshots of molecules show that they change shapes less often than theory predicted.

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  10. Humans

    ISEF winners announced

    More than 1,500 young scientists flexed their mental muscles this week at the world's largest high-school science competition.

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  11. Life

    Reviving extinct DNA

    For the first time, scientists have resurrected a piece of DNA from an extinct animal — the Tasmanian tiger. The researchers engineered mice with a piece of the long-gone marsupial's DNA that turns on a collagen gene in cartilage-producing cells.

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  12. Animals

    How they shine

    Believe it or not, science has barely begun to fathom the peacock’s tail. Subtle as a pink tuxedo, one might think. Big flashy thing. Peahens love it. What’s not to understand. INSPECTING IRRIDESCENCE Seen under a scanning electron microscope (right), the bristles of the wings of the butterfly Tomares ballus (left) resemble photonic crystals, materials […]

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  13. Health & Medicine

    Insects (the original white meat)

    Dining on insects, usually more by choice than necessity, occurs in at least 100 countries — and may be better than chicken for both people and the environment.

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  14. Earth

    Audubon’s insect cafeteria

    Read the main feature story on insects here. Would you fancy grasshopper gumbo? Perhaps mushroom hors d’oeuvres topped with a batter-dipped and lightly fried dragonfly—in season, of course—drizzled with a sauce of Dijon mustard, soy and butter? These are among recipes that self-taught insect chef Zack Lemann has whipped up as possible menu items for […]

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  15. Astronomy

    When Worlds Collide

    Science fiction movies and books are full of parallel universes. CRASH COURSE Microwave radiation traveling across the universe appears mostly uniform — as shown in the larger sphere — except for tiny temperature variations (red and blue) that indicate the locations of the seeds of future galaxies and other structures. Some cosmologists now say that […]

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