Vol. 194 No. 10
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More Stories from the November 24, 2018 issue

  1. Health & Medicine

    New 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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  2. Physics

    This 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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  3. Archaeology

    Ancient Clovis people may have taken tool cues from earlier Americans

    Ancient Americans’ spearpoints may have heralded later Clovis weapons.

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  4. Plants

    Liverwort 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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  5. Life

    To get a deeper tan, don’t sunbathe every day

    Skin cells make protective melanin on a 48-hour cycle.

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  6. Paleontology

    The 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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  7. Animals

    While 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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  8. Chemistry

    Zapping 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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  9. Neuroscience

    Young 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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  10. Archaeology

    Ancient 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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  11. Animals

    How 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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  12. Health & Medicine

    The 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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  13. Astronomy

    Three 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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  14. Neuroscience

    Stimulating 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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  15. Archaeology

    Fossils 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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  16. Physics

    Vanadium 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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  17. Planetary Science

    China 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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  18. Agriculture

    50 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.

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