Notebook

  1. Ecosystems

    Confused mayflies wreak havoc on a Pennsylvania bridge

    Cleaning a river in central Pennsylvania brought back mayflies, which now pose a threat to motorists crossing a bridge.

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  2. Animals

    These songbirds violently fling and then impale their prey

    A loggerhead shrike that skewers small animals on barbed wire gives mice whiplash shakeups.

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  3. Astronomy

    Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins big physics prize for 1967 pulsar discovery

    Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell speaks about winning the Breakthrough Prize, impostor syndrome and giving back.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, a pessimistic view for heart transplants

    Surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human-to-human heart transplant in 1967. In 1968, he predicted that patients would survive five years at best. Fortunately, he was wrong.

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  5. Physics

    Here’s how to bend spaghetti to your will

    Researchers have discovered how to snap spaghetti sticks without sending bits of pasta flying.

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  6. Animals

    There’s method in a firefly’s flashes

    Fireflies use their flashing lights for mating and maybe even to ward away predators.

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  7. Life

    How salamanders can regrow nearly complete tails but lizards can’t

    Differences in stem cells in the spinal cord explain the amphibians’ ability.

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  8. Science & Society

    Cheese found in an Egyptian tomb is at least 3,200 years old

    Solid cheese preserved in an ancient Egyptian tomb may be the world’s oldest.

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  9. Earth

    In 1968, scientists tried taming hurricanes

    For over 20 years, the U.S. government tried to subdue hurricanes through cloud seeding, with mixed results.

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  10. Animals

    This killifish can go from egg to sex in two weeks

    The fastest known maturing vertebrate in the lab is even faster in the wild.

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  11. Genetics

    50 years ago, scientists took baby steps toward selecting sex

    In 1968, scientists figured out how to determine the sex of rabbit embryos.

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  12. Earth

    You’re living in a new geologic age. It’s called the Meghalayan

    The newly defined Meghalayan Age began at the same time as a global, climate-driven event that led to human upheavals.

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