Earth
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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		EarthBig Water Losses
America's ailing water-delivery infrastructure is literally throwing clean water away -- and dirtying some of what it moves toward our taps.
By Janet Raloff - 			
			
		LifeHeat sensors guide insects to a hot meal
Bugs home in on seeds by detecting infrared radiation.
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		LifeAvian airlines: Alaska to New Zealand nonstop
Tracked bar-tailed godwits break previous nonstop flight record for birds.
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		HumansElephants’ struggle with poaching lingers on
Even as African elephants struggle to recover from decades-old poaching, the animals face new and renewed threats today.
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		TechCoal Country’s New Foresters
New techniques may be shaving a century or two off the recovery of mined mountain tops.
By Janet Raloff - 			
			
		TechTrading Forests for Coal
Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.
By Janet Raloff - 			
			
		ArchaeologyReally Cool History
Tales of the black band: Clues to a 4,200-year-old mystery lie frozen in icy records stored atop Mt. Kilimanjaro.
By Janet Raloff - 			
			
		ClimateEggs, Tea and Mr. IPCC
Even jet-lagged, the world's lead climate negotiator took time out to brief a few reporters.
By Janet Raloff - 			
			
		EarthAn electronic nose that smells plants’ pain
Device can detect distress signals from plants that are harmed, under attack.
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		EarthPrimordial soup lives again
Fifty-five years later, new analyses of leftovers from Stanley Miller's famous 'primordial soup' experiment suggest that life could have originated near volcanoes.
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		ClimateThe News Climate
Whether people choose to peruse news — and where — may explain what role science plays in shaping public opinion on global warming.
By Janet Raloff - 			
			
		ClimateCooling climate ‘consensus’ of 1970s never was
Myth often cited by global warming skeptics debunked.
By Sid Perkins