Vol. 195 No. 6

Reviews & Previews

Science Visualized

Notebook

Features

More Stories from the March 30, 2019 issue

  1. black hole formation
    Astronomy

    Colliding neutron stars shot a light-speed jet through space

    A stream of particles created in a neutron star crash, detected in 2017 using gravitational waves, could explain certain mysterious flashes of light.

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  2. land hermit crab
    Animals

    Hermit crabs are drawn to the smell of their own dead

    A new study finds that the smell of hermit crab flesh attracts other hermit crabs of the same species desperately looking for a larger shell.

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  3. people shaking hands
    Genetics

    A long handshake can spread your DNA to objects you didn’t touch

    Two new studies show that even brief contact with another person or object could transfer your DNA far and wide.

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  4. kids with mosquito bed nets
    Health & Medicine

    Treating mosquitoes may be a new way to fight malaria

    A lab test suggests it may be possible to treat mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite to stop disease transmission.

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  5. dog sniffing grass
    Genetics

    Genes might explain why dogs can’t sniff out some people under stress

    Genes and stress may change a person’s body odor, confusing police dogs.

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  6. fishing spider eating a tadpole
    Animals

    What spiders eating weird stuff tell us about complex Amazon food webs

    By documenting rare events of invertebrates eating small vertebrates, scientists are shedding new light on the Amazon rainforest’s intricate ecosystem.

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  7. black bear eating trash
    Animals

    Bears that eat ‘junk food’ may hibernate less and age faster

    Wild black bears snacking on leftovers of sugary, highly processed foods in Colorado show possible signs of faster cellular wear.

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  8. Alston’s singing mouse
    Neuroscience

    How singing mice belt out duets

    A precise timing system in the brain helps musical rodents from the cloud forests of Costa Rica sing to one another.

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  9. high-fiber food
    Life

    Eating a lot of fiber could improve some cancer treatments

    A high-fiber diet, which boosts the diversity of gut microbes, may make an immune therapy against skin cancer more effective.

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  10. galaxy cluster rings
    Cosmology

    Hidden ancient neutrinos may shape the patterns of galaxies

    The gravitational pull of subatomic particles born in the universe’s first second seem to influence how galaxies cluster into rings.

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  11. 2000-year-old tattoo tool
    Archaeology

    A 2,000-year-old tattoo tool is the oldest in western North America

    The artifact is made of two pigment-stained cactus spines, and has been sitting in storage since its discovery in 1972.

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  12. Kepler 1658b
    Astronomy

    The first planet Kepler spotted has finally been confirmed 10 years later

    Astronomers had dismissed the first exoplanet candidate spotted by the Kepler space telescope as a false alarm.

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  13. green icebergs
    Oceans

    Tiny bits of iron may explain why some icebergs are green

    Scientists originally thought the green hue of some icebergs came from carbon particles. Instead, iron oxides may color the ice.

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  14. rabbit bones
    Anthropology

    Hominids may have hunted rabbits as far back as 400,000 years ago

    Stone Age groups in Europe put small game on the menu surprisingly early.

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  15. exploding grape
    Physics

    Microwaved grapes make fireballs, and scientists now know why

    Electromagnetic waves bounce back and forth inside a grape, creating plasma.

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  16. ketamine laboratory
    Health & Medicine

    FDA has approved the first ketamine-based antidepressant

    A nasal spray with a ketamine-based drug promises faster relief from depression for some people.

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  17. tiger
    Animals

    How a tiger transforms into a man-eater

    ‘No Beast So Fierce’ examines the historical and environmental factors that turned a tiger in Nepal and India into a human-killer.

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  18. doctor
    Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, drug abuse was higher among physicians than the public

    In 1969, physicians abused drugs at a higher rate than the general public — that’s still true today.

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