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  1. Book Review: Almost Chimpanzee: Searching for What Makes Us Human, in Rainforests, Labs, Sanctuaries, and Zoos by Jon Cohen

    Review by Bruce Bower.

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  2. Planet Hunter: Geoff Marcy and the Search for Other Earths by Vicki Oransky Wittenstein

    A look at exoplanet hunting based on one astronomer’s life and work. Aimed at young adults.  PLANET HUNTER Boyds Mills Press, 2010, 48 p., $17.95.

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  3. The Nesting Season: Cuckoos, Cuckolds, and the Invention of Monogamy by Bernd Heinrich

    A naturalist explores how birds find a mate and what this process says — and what it doesn’t say — about human relationships. Belknap Press, 2010, 404 p., $29.95. THE NESTING SEASON

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  4. Whatever music is, it’s a basic part of being human

    Music perception researcher Ian Cross ponders music's nature and significance.

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  5. Life

    Noisy bacteria

    Cell-by-cell analysis finds big differences among genetically identical cells.

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  6. Psychology

    Sadness response strengthens with age

    Older people reacted more strongly to sad scenes than twentysomethings did in a recent study of emotional receptivity.

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  7. Life

    Lemurs on contraceptives don’t smell right

    Birth control disrupts female odors used in mating and other social situations.

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  8. Earth

    Trailing dust devils

    Whirlwinds leave dark paths behind by sucking sand grains clean.

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  9. Life

    Genetics redraws marsupial family tree

    A new analysis traces the group’s origin to South America.

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  10. Materials Science

    Erasing wrinkles, the physicists’ way

    Researchers study how folds and other creases disappear.

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  11. Space

    Two is the magic number

    New experiments confirm a fundamental postulate of quantum mechanics.

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  12. Earth

    Researchers create global map of tree height

    A new map shows forest height around the globe and will improve estimates of how much carbon is stored in trees.

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