HIDDEN FIGURES By the 1940s, NASA Langley began recruiting black women to work as human computers, a role that would continue to be essential to the center’s operations.
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In the July 8 SN: DNA traces many roads to domestication, seeking quantum supremacy, the 25th anniversary of the qubit, bones’ secret messages, how monkeys see faces, redating Homo sapiens, a record-breaking gas giant, strange dragonfly wings and more.
Numbers
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NUMBER SMARTS Cats show quantity-related abilities. Without training, cats can pick out differences between groups of a few small objects, such as 2 versus 5, but the felines may be using visual shortcuts.
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TAKING MEASURE New units based on fundamental properties of the universe will make measurements more precise. A kilogram cylinder replica (left) is safeguarded under bell jars. Ultrasmooth silicon spheres (right) will soon be used to redefine the kilogram using the Planck constant — making the kilogram prototype obsolete.
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