Vol. 203 No. 10
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More Stories from the June 3, 2023 issue

  1. Animals

    This elephant peels bananas, but only slightly ripe ones

    Pang Pha, an Asian elephant at Zoo Berlin, probably picked up the skill by observing her zookeeper.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Why you shouldn’t use magnets when looking for meteorites

    A popular tool for identifying meteorites can overwrite records of magnetic fields stored within the space rocks.

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  3. Materials Science

    A vegan leather made of dormant fungi can repair itself

    Researchers developed a leather alternative made from dormant fungus that can be reanimated and then regrow when damaged.

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  4. Animals

    This marine biologist is on a mission to save endangered rays

    Jessica Pate and the Florida Manta Project confirm that endangered mantas are mating and sicklefin devils are migrating along the East Coast.

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  5. Life

    Ancient giant eruptions may have seeded nitrogen needed for life

    A new study bolsters the idea that on the young Earth volcanic lightning may have provided some materials that made it possible for life to emerge.

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  6. Astronomy

    For the first time, astrophysicists have caught a star eating a planet

    A burst of light and a cloud of dust are signs that a star 12,000 light-years away swallowed a planet up to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.

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  7. Astronomy

    A streak of light may not be a black hole fleeing its galaxy after all

    A suspicious trail of starlight may just be a spiral galaxy seen edge on, not stars that formed in the wake of a runaway supermassive black hole.

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  8. Quantum Physics

    A sapphire Schrödinger’s cat shows that quantum effects can scale up

    The atoms in a piece of sapphire oscillate in two directions at once, a mimic of the hypothetically dead-and-alive feline.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Ultrasound allows a chemotherapy drug to enter the human brain

    An early-stage clinical trial demonstrates a technique for getting a powerful chemotherapy drug past the usually impenetrable blood-brain barrier.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Women who’ve had breast cancer can safely pause treatment for pregnancy

    Hormone therapy cannot be taken during pregnancy. A new study is reassuring for women who’ve had breast cancer and want to try for a baby.

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  11. Life

    Comb jellies have a bizarre nervous system unlike any other animal

    A 3-D map of the comb jelly “nerve net” reveals fused neurons that lack the space, or synapses, most neurons use to communicate. Did it evolve independently?

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Mouse hair turns gray when certain stem cells get stuck

    Stem cells involved in giving hair its color must keep moving and changing maturity levels to prevent graying, a mouse study suggests.

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  13. Archaeology

    Ancient human DNA was extracted from a 20,000-year-old deer tooth pendant

    Insights into Stone Age people’s lives may soon come from a new, nondestructive DNA extraction method.

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  14. Animals

    A 2,200-year-old poop time capsule reveals secrets of the Andean condor

    Guano that has accumulated in a cliffside Andean condor nest for 2,200 years reveals how the now-vulnerable birds responded to a changing environment.

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