Uncategorized
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Science & Society
Readers react to the SN 10 and Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Readers expressed their thoughts about the SN 10 scientists, Saturn's hexagons and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
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Tech
How Twitter bots get people to spread fake news
Automated bot accounts on Twitter help spread misinformation by strategically encouraging people to make it go viral.
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Archaeology
An exploding meteor may have wiped out ancient Dead Sea communities
An archaeological site not far from the Dead Sea shows signs of sudden, superheated collapse 3,700 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Particle Physics
Nuclear ‘knots’ could unravel the mysteries of atoms
Skyrmions might help loosen scientific snarls in studies of atomic nuclei.
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Planetary Science
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will look for ancient life in a former river delta
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is going to Jezero crater, the site of an ancient river delta that may harbor signs of life.
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Archaeology
A Bronze Age tomb in Israel reveals the earliest known use of vanilla
Residue of the aromatic substance in 3 jugs dates to around 3,600 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Life
Gut bacteria may guard against diabetes that comes with aging
A friendly microbe in the gut may be the key to staving off insulin resistance, a study in mice finds.
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Animals
Hemp fields offer a late-season pollen source for stressed bees
Colorado’s legal fields of low-THC cannabis can attract a lot of bees.
By Susan Milius -
Animals
Wombats are the only animals whose poop is a cube. Here’s how they do it.
The elasticity of wombats’ intestines helps the creatures shape their distinctive poops.
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Health & Medicine
Small doses of peanut protein can turn allergies around
After a year of careful peanut protein exposure, most kids in a clinical trial could tolerate the equivalent of two large peanuts.
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Planetary Science
Tiny satellites will relay news of InSight’s Mars landing in minutes, not hours
NASA’s InSight Mars lander brought along two tiny CubeSats to send details about the spacecraft’s landing to Earth in almost real time.
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Archaeology
A Bronze Age game called 58 holes was found chiseled into stone in Azerbaijan
A newly discovered rock pattern suggests that the game traveled fast from the Near East to Eurasia thousands of years ago.
By Bruce Bower