Vol. 190 No. 5
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More Stories from the September 3, 2016 issue

  1. Life

    Distinctions blur between wolf species

    Red and eastern wolves might be gray wolf/coyote blends instead of distinct species

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  2. Anthropology

    Oldest evidence of cancer in human family tree found

    Bony growths on fossils may push origins of this disease way back in the Stone Age.

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  3. Neuroscience

    Running doesn’t make rats forgetful

    Running doesn’t seem to wipe out old memories in rats, concludes a new study that contradicts earlier reports suggesting that exercise does actually help old memories fade and new memories form — in other rodents.

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  4. Animals

    Diversity of indoor insects, spiders adds to life’s luxuries in high-income neighborhoods

    A massive survey of indoor spiders and insects in town finds dozens of different scientific families in homes, more in high-income neighborhoods.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Ceres is more than just a space rock

    Dawn spacecraft reveals that the dwarf planet Ceres hides a core of solid rock beneath an outer crust of minerals, salts and ices.

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  6. Earth

    China’s mythical ‘Great Flood’ possibly rooted in real disaster

    Folktales of an ancient flood that helped kick off Chinese civilization may reference a nearly 4,000-year-old deluge.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Zika vaccines work in rhesus monkeys

    Three vaccines can protect rhesus monkeys from infection with Zika. One of them fended off viral strains from both Brazil and Puerto Rico.

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  8. Genetics

    Rats offer clues to biology of alcoholism

    Heavy-drinking rats are giving scientists new genetic clues to alcoholism.

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  9. Particle Physics

    Upon further review, suspected new particle vanishes

    Hints of a new particle at the LHC have disappeared.

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  10. Physics

    LIGO’s black holes may be dark matter

    Two analyses indicate that LIGO could have detected black holes that formed just after the Big Bang.

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  11. Neuroscience

    ‘Neural dust’ can listen to body’s electrical signals

    Tiny crystals can detect electrical signals in nerves and muscles of rats.

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  12. Climate

    India’s monsoon winds trace back nearly 13 million years

    The intense monsoon winds that carry torrential rain to India each year first started blowing around 12.9 million years ago, new research suggests.

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  13. Particle Physics

    Cooling stars hint at dark matter particles

    Stars that cool faster than expected can be explained by hypothetical particles called axions.

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  14. Anthropology

    Notorious ‘ape-man’ fossil hoax pinned on one wrongdoer

    New Piltdown Man study pegs infamous ‘ape-man’ skull forgery on one well-informed culprit.

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  15. Particle Physics

    New data give clearer picture of Higgs boson

    Scientists are carefully measuring the Higgs boson’s properties.

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  16. Astronomy

    Dark matter candidate particles are a no-show in Hitomi data

    Before the Hitomi satellite broke apart, it captured data that cast further doubt on evidence of X-rays from dark matter particles in a galaxy cluster.

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  17. Life

    ‘Promiscuous’ enzymes can compensate for disabled genes

    Promiscuous enzymes can step in when bacteria lose genes they need to function.

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  18. Life

    For bacteria, assassination can breed cooperation

    Cholera bacteria stabbing each other can encourage the evolution of cooperation.

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  19. Life

    Two stationary kinds of bacteria can move when mixed

    Bacteria stuck when alone on a dry surface get moving — and get faster — when they evolve together.

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  20. Genetics

    Darwin’s Dogs wants your dog’s DNA

    The Darwin’s Dogs citizen science project is collecting canine DNA to better understand dog genetics and behavior.

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  21. Neuroscience

    Fentanyl’s death toll is rising

    The ability of fentanyl, an opioid, to freeze chest muscles within minutes may be to blame for some overdoses, a new autopsy study shows.

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  22. Health & Medicine

    Cornea donation may have sex bias

    Women receiving a corneal transplant do better when their donors are female, new research finds.

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  23. Neuroscience

    Computers refine epilepsy treatment

    Surgeons harnessed computers in 1966 to pinpoint source of epilepsy in the brain.

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  24. Plants

    How a tomato plant foils a dreaded vampire vine

    Tomatoes can foil a dodder plant attack by getting scared and scabbing over.

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  25. Climate

    Global warming amplified death toll during 2003 European heat wave

    Climate change caused hundreds of fatalities in London and Paris during the 2003 European heat wave, simulations suggest.

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  26. Animals

    Colugo genome reveals gliders as primate cousins

    New genetic analysis suggests gliding mammals called colugos are actually sisters to modern primates.

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  27. Genetics

    Scientists get a glimpse of chemical tagging in live brains

    For the first time scientists can see where molecular tags known as epigenetic marks are placed in the brain.

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