Vol. 188 No. 6
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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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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