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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Genetics

    Organism with artificial DNA alphabet makes its debut

    Using DNA molecules other than A, C, G and T, scientists have created the first living organism with an expanded genetic alphabet.

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  2. Psychology

    Why every face you draw looks a little Neandertal

    Just about everyone draws faces with the eyes too high and a low Neandertal forehead, maybe because of the way we perceive the shape of the head.

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  3. Paleontology

    Dinosaurs could take tough breaks

    Meat-eating dinosaurs may have survived some extremely bad bone breaks, according to detailed chemical maps of the fossils.

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  4. Animals

    Woodpecker beaks divulge shock-absorbing properties

    Scales, sutures and porosity help the birds hammer without going stupid.

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  5. Animals

    What animal is the world’s best rock climber?

    Lots of animals manage to scale vertical heights, and each has their own way of accomplishing the feat.

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  6. Neuroscience

    Young blood proven good for old brain

    Blood — or one of its protein components — restores some of youth’s vibrancy to elderly mouse brains.

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  7. Animals

    Narwhal has the strangest tooth in the sea

    Sometimes called the unicorn of the sea, the male narwhal’s tusk is actually a tooth. Narwhals detect changes in water salinity using only these tusks, a new study finds.

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  8. Animals

    How to milk a naked mole-rat

    For the sake of science, Olav Oftedal has milked bats, bears and a lot of other mammals. But a naked mole-rat was something new.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    First MERS case found in the U.S.

    Patient in Indiana had traveled from Arabian Peninsula, where most of the 463 cases of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome have occurred.

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  10. Neuroscience

    You smell, and mice can tell

    A new study shows that the smell of a man causes stress in lab mice. The findings show scientists have yet another variable to control: the scientist.

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  11. Neuroscience

    Young rats that use their brain keep more cells alive

    Learning a task helps just-born cells survive in a learning and memory center of the rat brain.

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  12. Animals

    Some birds adapt to Chernobyl’s radiation

    Some birds seem to fare well in and near the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but overall the nuclear disaster has been bad news for the region’s bird populations.

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