Vol. 196 No. 5
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More Stories from the September 14, 2019 issue

  1. Space

    A proposed space telescope would use Earth’s atmosphere as a lens

    One astronomer has a bold solution to the high cost of building big telescopes.

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  2. Earth

    One in 4 people lives in places at high risk of running out of water

    An update to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas reveals that 17 countries withdraw more than 80 percent of water available yearly.

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  3. Humans

    A new FDA-approved drug takes aim at a deadly form of tuberculosis

    The antibiotic could help tackle extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which kills tens of thousands each year.

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  4. Life

    Big and bold wasp queens may create more successful colonies

    A paper wasp queen’s personality and body size could help predict whether the nest she has founded will thrive.

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  5. Climate

    Climate change may make El Niño and La Niña less predictable

    Atlantic Niñas and Niños have been fairly reliable bellwethers for severe El Niño and La Niña events in the Pacific. A warming world may change that.

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  6. Space

    A planetary body may have smashed into Jupiter, creating its weird core

    A planetary body smashing into Jupiter may have jostled the gas giant’s insides during its formative years, creating the strange interior seen today.

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  7. Earth

    Fluid in superdeep diamonds may be from some of Earth’s oldest unchanged material

    Primordial rock deep in the mantle and dating to just after Earth’s formation could yield insights about the planet’s formation and evolution

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  8. Life

    Alzheimer’s targets brain cells that help people stay awake

    Nerve cells in the brain that are tied to wakefulness are destroyed in people with Alzheimer’s, a finding that may refocus dementia research.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    High blood pressure throughout middle age may increase the risk of dementia

    A pattern of high blood pressure during midlife followed by high or low readings in one’s golden years is linked to dementia.

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  10. Space

    For an asteroid, Ryugu has surprisingly little dust on its surface

    Ryugu lacks the dust that some other space rocks have. The near-Earth asteroid may hide the fine debris inside porous rocks or eject it into space.

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  11. Humans

    Engraved bones reveal that symbolism had ancient roots in East Asia

    Denisovans might have etched line patterns on two animal bone fragments more than 100,000 years ago in what’s now northern China.

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  12. Earth

    The worst wildfires can send smoke high enough to affect the ozone layer

    Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can send soot and other damaging particles 23 kilometers into the air

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  13. Physics

    New cloaking devices could hide objects from water waves and currents

    Specially designed materials could help prevent boats from rocking too violently in harbors, researchers say.

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  14. Chemistry

    Chemists have created and imaged a new form of carbon

    A new molecule takes its place among buckyballs, carbon nanotubes and other odd forms of carbon.

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  15. Life

    Electrodes show a glimpse of memories emerging in a brain

    Nerve cells in an important memory center in the brain sync their firing and create fast ripples of activity seconds before a recollection resurfaces.

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  16. Life

    Why people with celiac disease suffer so soon after eating gluten

    In people with celiac disease, some T cells release immune chemicals within hours of encountering gluten, triggering the fast onset of symptoms.

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  17. Space

    Astronomers just quintupled the number of known repeating fast radio bursts

    A Canadian telescope spotted eight more repeating fast radio bursts. What causes these cryptic flashes of radio waves from deep space remains unclear.

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  18. Space

    LIGO and Virgo probably spotted the first black hole swallowing up a neutron star

    In a first, astronomers may just have detected gravitational waves from a black hole merging with a neutron star.

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  19. Humans

    The first chlamydia vaccine has passed a major test

    A clinical trial for a vaccine against the sexually transmitted disease found that the product provoked an immune response.

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  20. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, polio was still circulating in the United States

    The world has never been closer to eradicating polio, but the disease could come roaring back where vaccination is spotty.

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