Particle Physics
Why a chemistry teacher started a science board game company
Subatomic is the latest game from John Coveyou, whose company Genius Games wants people to find the joy in science.
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Cover Story
How mammoths competed with other animals and lost
Mammoths, mastodons and other ancient elephants were wiped out at the end of the last ice age by climate change and spear-wielding humans.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Life
Dandelion seeds create a bizarre whirlpool in the air to fly
Researchers have deciphered the physics underlying dandelion flight.
Notebook
Health & Medicine
An eye disorder may have given Leonardo da Vinci an artistic edge
An analysis of portraits believed to portray Leonardo da Vinci offers evidence that the artist had exotropia, in which one eye turns outward.
Features
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Engineers are plugging holes in drinking water treatment
Drinking water quality has come a long way in the past hundred years — but challenges remain.
More Stories from the November 24, 2018 issue
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Health & MedicineNew therapies pack a triple-drug punch to treat cystic fibrosis
In testing, a triple-drug therapy significantly improved lung function in cystic fibrosis patients with the most common disease-causing mutation.
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PhysicsThis cloud-zapping laser could help scientists create a quantum internet
A powerful fast-pulsing laser can bust through clouds to make quantum communication via satellite easier.
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ArchaeologyAncient Clovis people may have taken tool cues from earlier Americans
Ancient Americans’ spearpoints may have heralded later Clovis weapons.
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PlantsLiverwort plants contain a painkiller similar to the one in marijuana
Cannabinoids found in liverwort plants could spell relief for those suffering from chronic pain.
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LifeTo get a deeper tan, don’t sunbathe every day
Skin cells make protective melanin on a 48-hour cycle.
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PaleontologyThe first vertebrates on Earth arose in shallow coastal waters
After appearing about 480 million years ago in coastal waters, the earliest vertebrates stayed in the shallows for another 100 million years.
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AnimalsWhile eating, these tiny worms release chemicals to lure their next meal
As they eat insects, one nematode species releases chemicals that attract more insect prey.
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ChemistryZapping substances with electrons can quickly map chemical structures
Speedy molecular identification originally developed for proteins might benefit crime lab researchers and drugmakers.
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NeuroscienceYoung people’s memories improved when they stopped using marijuana
After just a week of not using pot, teens’ and young adults’ abilities to remember lists of words got better, a small study finds.
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ArchaeologyAncient South Americans tasted chocolate 1,500 years before anyone else
Artifacts with traces of cacao push back the known date for when the plant was first domesticated by 1,500 years.
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AnimalsHow roaches fight off wasps that turn their victims into zombies
Cockroaches kick attacking emerald jewel wasps to avoid being incapacitated and buried alive as living meat for the wasps’ young.
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Health & MedicineThe appendix is implicated in Parkinson’s disease
Removal of the appendix reduced the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, an analysis of nearly 1.7 million health records in Sweden suggests.
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AstronomyThree gas clouds nearly grazed the edge of the Milky Way’s black hole
Gas clumps cozy up to the Milky Way’s enormous black hole, new observations reveal.
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NeuroscienceStimulating the spinal cord helps 3 more paralyzed people walk
There’s more evidence that with targeted spinal cord stimulation, paralyzed people can move voluntarily — and even walk.
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ArchaeologyFossils hint hominids migrated through a ‘green’ Arabia 300,000 years ago
A once-green Arabia may have enabled Stone Age entries by Homo groups.
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PhysicsVanadium dioxide’s weird phase transition just got weirder
When shifting from one crystalline structure to another, the atoms inside vanadium dioxide bumble around a lot more than expected.
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Planetary ScienceChina is about to visit uncharted territory on the moon
The next two Chinese missions to the moon will visit places no spacecraft has been before. The rest of the world wants a piece of the lunar action.
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Agriculture50 years ago, screwworm flies inspired a new approach to insect control
The United States has wiped out screwworm flies repeatedly since 1966 using the sterile male eradication technique.