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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Tech

    Physics of burrowing sandfish revealed

    A new study shows how sandfish lizards swim through Saharan sands, a find that could inspire better burrowing tools for use in the aftermath of disasters.

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  2. Tech

    Model copes with chaos to deliver relief

    A computer program can get supplies to disaster areas efficiently even when the transportation system is part of the problem.

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  3. Tech

    New batteries fix themselves

    Self-healing lithium-ion batteries may last longer than current versions and be less likely to burst into flames.

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  4. Tech

    The numbers prove it: This is a data age

    An assessment of the world’s computing capacity documents a staggering rise in power and storage since 1986.

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  5. Tech

    Pint-sized Princess Leia nearer reality

    Faster but fuzzier holographic 3-D teleconferencing debuts.

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  6. Math

    Fruit flies teach computers a lesson

    Insect's nerve cell development is a model of efficiency for sensing networks.

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  7. Tech

    Dirty money 2: Expect traces of BPA

    BPA showed up on 21 of the 22 greenbacks surveyed in a new study. And the clean dollar? It appeared quite new, suggesting that dollars only become contaminated as they circulate.

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  8. Tech

    Terrorist-resistant ‘source’ of moly-99 hits the U.S.

    Molybdenum-99 is the radioactive feedstock for the most widely used diagnostic nuclear-medicine isotope. On December 6, the first commercial batch of moly-99 that had been produced using a terrorist-resistant process arrived in the United States from a reactor in South Africa.

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  9. Tech

    Heavier crudes, heavier footprints

    BLOG: Refining heavy oils and tar sands could greatly exaggerate the greenhouse gases associated with fossil-fuel use, a new study finds.

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  10. Tech

    Newfound water risk: Lead-leaching valves

    Hidden elements in drinking-water lines can shed large amounts of lead, a toxic heavy metal. And it's quite legal, even if it does skirt the intent of federal regulations.

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  11. Tech

    Lots of blame over BP well blowout, panel reports

    Crews responsible for drilling BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, this past spring, missed plenty of signs that a catastrophic accident was looming, according to a November 17 interim report by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council.

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  12. Tech

    BPA: EPA hasn’t identified a safer alternative for thermal paper

    Some researchers and public interest groups have been arguing that BPAfree thermal receipts paper is a preferable alternative, at least from a health perspective. But is it really? That’s what Environmental Protection Agency scientists want to know. And to date, they maintain, the jury’s still out.

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