Vol. 188 No. 6

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Science Visualized

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Features

More Stories from the September 19, 2015 issue

  1. Particle Physics

    Antimatter doesn’t differ from charge-mass expectations

    An experiment with unprecedented precision finds that protons and antiprotons have the same ratio of charge to mass, which is consistent with theories but disappoints many physicists.

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  2. California two-spot octopus
    Genetics

    How an octopus’s cleverness may have evolved

    Scientists have sequenced the octopus genome, revealing molecular similarities to mammals.

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  3. Massacre main
    Anthropology

    Bones revive a 7,000-year-old massacre

    Bones suggest Central Europe’s first farmers had an extremely violent streak.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Teen e-cig users more likely to smoke tobacco

    E-cigarette use is linked to later tobacco use in teens.

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  5. Animals

    Hummingbird tongues may work like micropumps

    Hummingbird tongues work as elastic micropumps instead of simple thin tubes, researchers say in latest round of a scientific debate.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    ‘Vomiting device’ sounds gross but it helps study infections

    Scientists created a “vomiting device” to study how norovirus spreads through the air.

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  7. Genetics

    Gene thought to cause obesity works indirectly

    Researchers have discovered a “genetic switch” that determines whether people will burn extra calories or save them as fat.

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  8. Animals

    Seeing humans as superpredators

    People have become a unique predator, hunting mostly adults of other species.

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  9. flasks
    Life

    Extinction in lab bottle was a fluke, experiment finds

    Extinction in a bottle was a random catastrophe, not survival of the fittest.

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  10. helicopter
    Climate

    Katrina’s legacy: Refining hurricane forecasting

    Ten years following Hurricane Katrina’s formation, the storm’s devastating legacy in New Orleans and beyond continues to drive storm forecast improvements.

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  11. computer
    Quantum Physics

    Physicists get answers from computer that didn’t run

    By exploiting the quirks of quantum mechanics, physicists consistently determined what a quantum computer would have done without actually running the computer.

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  12. Neuroscience

    Altered protein makes mice smarter

    By tweaking a single gene, scientists have turned average mice into supersmart daredevils.

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  13. Quantum Physics

    New experiment verifies quantum spookiness

    A new experiment provides the most robust proof that quantum mechanics doesn’t follow the rules we take for granted in everyday life.

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  14. ancient lava
    Earth

    Volcanic activity convicted in Permian extinction

    Precision dating confirms that Siberian volcanic eruptions could have triggered the Permian extinction.

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  15. photo illustration of satellite galaxies
    Astronomy

    Eight more galaxies found orbiting the Milky Way

    The dozens of satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way make excellent laboratories for studying dark matter.

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  16. Physics

    3-D printed device cracks cocktail party problem

    A plastic disk does what sophisticated computers cannot: solve the cocktail party problem.

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  17. male camper sleeping
    Neuroscience

    Hints of how the brain “sees” dreams emerge

    Nerve cells that make sense of visual input keep chugging away during REM sleep, suggesting that these cells may help a sleeper “see” dreams.

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  18. Octopus
    Animals

    When octopuses dance beak to beak

    The larger Pacific striped octopus does sex, motherhood and shrimp pranks like nobody else.

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  19. pythagoras
    Physics

    Nobel laureate finds beauty in science and science in beauty

    In ‘A Beautiful Question,’ Frank Wilczek explores links between math and art

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  20. Green Bank Telescope
    Astronomy

    Go to Green Bank to listen to the stars

    Visitors to the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia get a close-up with the world’s largest movable land object.

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  21. Y dwarf illustration
    Astronomy

    Two stars were once considered coldest known

    Two stars once thought to be the coldest known are actually scorching compared with some truly frigid brown dwarfs.

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  22. Aurora
    Planetary Science

    The sad magnetic state of the solar system’s rocky worlds

    While a strong magnetic shield protects Earth from the sun’s occasional outbursts, the solar system’s other rocky planets are mostly defenseless.

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