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  1. Serotonin: What the gut feeds the bones

    Chemical messenger plays a surprising role in determining the strength of the skeleton.

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  2. Quest for energy efficiency needs public engagement

    On April 14, the National Science Board released a draft report called “Building a Sustainable Energy Future,” offering advice on how the United States can transition to renewable and clean sources of energy. Dan Arvizu, the cochairman of the board’s task force on sustainable energy and director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, […]

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  3. Book Review: 1001 Inventions That Changed the World by Jack Challoner, ed.

    Review by Sid Perkins.

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  4. Book Review: Diagnosis: Mercury Money, Politics & Poison by Jane M. Hightower

    Review by Janet Raloff.

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  5. How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories: Evolutionary Enigmas by David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton

    A sociobiologist and a clinical psychiatrist explore why women evolved the way they did. HOW WOMEN GOT THEIR CURVES AND OTHER JUST-SO STORIES: EVOLUTIONARY ENIGMAS BY DAVID P. BARASH AND JUDITH EVE LIPTON Columbia Univ., 2009, 224 p., $29.95.

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  6. Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner

    This radioactive substance has offered promise and generated peril throughout history. URANIUM: WAR, ENERGY AND THE ROCK THAT SHAPED THE WORLD BY TOM ZOELLNER Viking, 2009, 337 p., $26.95.

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  7. The Cosmic Connection: How Astronomical Events Impact Life on Earth by Jeff Kanipe

    From solar output to supernovas, cosmic events affect Earth’s biosphere. Prometheus Books, 2009, 296 p., $27.98. THE COSMIC CONNECTION: HOW ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS IMPACT LIFE ON EARTH BY JEFF KANIPE

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  8. The Illustrious Dead by Stephan Talty

    How an eons-old disease — typhus —defeated Napoléon’s seemingly unstoppable Great Army. Crown Publishers, 2009, 336 p., $25.95. THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD BY STEPHAN TALTY

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  9. Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Daina Taimina

    Math and art interweave in this tactile, comprehensible exploration of geometry. AK Peters, 2009, 148 p., $35. CROCHETING ADVENTURES WITH HYPERBOLIC PLANES BY DAINA TAIMINA

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  10. Science Past from the issue of June 6, 1959

    Space Flight Succeeds — Two little monkeys, one clad in a space suit and the other lying in a special capsule with her knees drawn up under her, were blasted 300 miles into space on Thursday, May 28, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has revealed. Drama of the experiment was […]

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  11. Science Future for June 6, 2009

    June 7–19 High school students compete in the USA Biology Olympiad national finals in Fairfax, Va. See www.cee.org/programs/usabo July 11–15 American Society for Virology annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. See www.asv2009.com  September 15 Deadline for the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge. Visit www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports

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  12. Letters

    Hormones, milk and fat I find it difficult to understand why the hormone content of skim milk is greater than that of 2% low-fat milk, which in turn is greater than whole milk (“Scientists find a soup of suspects while probing milk’s link to cancer,” SN: 3/28/09, p. 5). To the extent that 2% and […]

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