Animals
New books explore why dogs and humans have such a special bond
‘Dog Is Love’ and ‘Our Dogs, Ourselves’ delve into the complicated, sometimes contradictory relationship that we have with our canine companions.
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Cover Story
Can forensics help keep endangered rosewood off the black market?
Timber traffickers are plundering the world’s forests, but conservationists have a new set of tools to fight deforestation.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Earth
Here’s where Earth stores its carbon
Most of Earth’s carbon is stored inside the planet. But giant lava outflows and now humans have released huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
Notebook
Humans
Human embryos have extra hand muscles found in lizards but not most adults
In developing human embryos, muscles are made, then lost, in a pattern that mirrors the appearance of the structures during evolution.
Features
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Mom’s immune system and microbiome may help predict premature birth
Analyzing patients’ immune systems, microbiomes and more, researchers find signals to pinpoint and halt premature labor.
More Stories from the November 9, 2019 issue
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Health & Medicine50 years ago, cancer vaccines were a dream
Researchers are now prodding the immune system to fight cancer, reviving the longtime dream of creating cancer vaccines.
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SpaceWith 20 new moons, Saturn now has the most of any solar system planet
The discovery brings Saturn’s moon tally to 82. The previous record-holder, Jupiter, has 79.
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NeurosciencePlants don’t have feelings and aren’t conscious, a biologist argues
The rise of the field of “plant neurobiology” has this scientist and his colleagues pushing back.
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SpaceA new image reveals the structure of the cosmic web
Newly spotted tendrils of gas within a forming cluster of galaxies support scientists’ theory of the cosmos.
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LifeAcrobatic choanoflagellates could help explain how multicellularity evolved
A newfound single-celled microbe species forms groups of multiple individual organisms that change shape in response to light.
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PhysicsPhysicists have found quasiparticles that mimic hypothetical dark matter axions
These subatomic particles could make up dark matter in the cosmos. A mathematically similar phenomenon occurs in a solid material.
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AnimalsHumpback whales use their flippers and bubble ‘nets’ to catch fish
A study reveals new details of how humpback whales hunt using their flippers and a whirl of bubbles to capture fish.
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ArchaeologyAncient European households combined the rich and poor
Homes combined “haves” and “have-nots” in a male-run system, suggests a study that challenges traditional views of ancient social stratification.
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EcosystemsBurrowing birds create pockets of rich plant life in a desert landscape
Mounds of sand dug out by birds are hot spots for plants in Peru’s Atacama Desert, possibly providing a sheltered and moist area for seed germination.
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NeuroscienceDueling brain waves during sleep may decide whether rats remember or forget
In a slumbering rat, two distinct kinds of brain waves have opposite jobs.
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NeuroscienceOrganoids offer clues to how brains are made in humans and chimpanzees
Three-dimensional clumps of brain cells offer clues about how brains get made in humans and chimpanzees.
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Science & SocietyEconomics Nobel goes to poverty-fighting science
Three scientists share the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for developing real-world interventions for tackling poverty.
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PhysicsPhysics Nobel awarded for discoveries about the universe’s evolution and exoplanets
Three scientists share the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics for revealing what makes up our cosmos and for finding the first planet orbiting a sunlike star.
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Health & MedicineDiscovery of how cells sense oxygen wins the 2019 medicine Nobel
Understanding the molecular switch that lets cells cope with oxygen has implications for everything from metabolism to wound healing.
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ChemistryThe development of the lithium-ion battery has won the chemistry Nobel Prize
Three scientists have won the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for helping create lithium-ion batteries, which power everyday devices from smartphones to electric cars.
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LifeHow tardigrades protect their DNA to defy death
Tardigrades encase their DNA in a cloud of protective protein to shield from damage by radiation or drying out.
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PaleontologyBig dinosaurs kept cool thanks to blood vessel clusters in their heads
Giant dinosaurs evolved several strategies for cooling their blood and avoiding heatstroke.
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SpaceHow the second known interstellar visitor makes ‘Oumuamua seem even odder
With its gaseous halo and tail, the second discovered interstellar object, 2I/Borisov, looks basically like your run-of-the-mill solar system comet.
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Materials ScienceA new cooling technique relies on untwisting coiled fibers
A “twist fridge” operates via twistocaloric cooling, a technique that generates cooling by unraveling twisted strands.