News

  1. Animals

    I, Magpie

    Some magpies recognize themselves in mirrors, indicating that a basic form of self-recognition evolved in one family of birds.

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  2. Earth

    Carcinogens from car exhaust can linger

    Free radicals similar to those in cigarette smoke may form when car exhaust cools off, and may persist indefinitely in the air.

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  3. Space

    Tiny object points to remote solar system reservoir

    Possible comet may be distant visitor from the innermost region of the Oort Cloud, the proposed comet reservoir of the outermost solar system.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Immune cells show long-term memory

    Survivors of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic still make antibodies against the virus, revealing a long-lived immunity previously thought impossible.

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  5. Space

    The great planet debate

    New suggestions for defining a planet would put Pluto back on the list. Scientists discuss the International Astronomical Union’s definition during the Great Planet Debate Conference.

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  6. Life

    Brain boost

    Protein improves old rats’ ability to form new memories.

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  7. Physics

    Stars ablaze in other skies

    A new study suggests that a surprising number of universes, even those with laws of physics different from those in our universe, can still support stars.

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  8. Space

    Sharpshooting Enceladus

    Swooping within 49 kilometers of Saturn’s tiny, geologically active moon Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed the locations of the icy geysers that erupt from the southern hemisphere of this wrinkled moon’s surface.

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  9. Space

    Upgrading a moon

    Pluto’s moon could perhaps get bumped onto the dwarf planet list.

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  10. Archaeology

    Saharan surprise

    A chance discovery in the Sahara leads to the excavation of a Stone Age cemetery containing remains from two lakeside cultures.

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  11. Ecosystems

    Slave ants rebel

    Species vulnerable to enslavement may evolve ways to fight their captors.

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  12. Ecosystems

    Coastal dead zones expanding

    The number of coastal areas known as dead zones is on the rise. A new tally reports more than 400 of the oxygen starved regions worldwide.

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