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Cesar Manso / Stringer / Getty ‘Pure Poison’ for a Scholarly Career
Researchers have spent centuries failing to decipher a medieval manuscript’s baffling drawings of plants, naked women, and astrological symbols. Is it worth the effort?
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Ute Grabowsky / Photothek via Getty The Problem That Psychology Can’t Shake
Ten years after a seminal paper laid bare psychology’s white, affluent, Western skew, not much has changed.
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Towfiqu Photography / Getty What Doctors Can Learn From the Dark Web
Opioid addicts are turning to online forums for advice about quitting. Their conversations have a lot to teach us about drug use and public health.
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James Gathany / AP Why There’s Still No Lyme Vaccine for Humans
False starts and fear have kept such a drug off the market for two decades.
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Din Aharoni / El HaLev What Self-Defense Can Do for Mental Health
Evidence suggests that classes can be like therapy for sexual-assault survivors, but some researchers fear that they could cause new trauma instead.
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Enrique Castro-Mendivil / Reuters A Tiny, 25-Year-Old Study Still Drives Opinion on Pregnancy and Pot
The “Jamaica study” has garnered more attention online than 99 percent of scientific research.
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MB Photography / Getty Dingoes Have Created a Scientific Rift
Is classifying the wild dog as a species good strategy or bad practice?
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Peter Andrews / Reuters A Promising Resource for Cancer Breakthroughs Is Dying Out
As humans drive vulnerable mammals closer to extinction, valuable mutations hidden in their DNA could be bred out of existence.
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Alex Sanz / AP Computer Scientists Make the Case Against an Expensive New Voting System
Georgia is preparing to spend $150 million on election technology. Experts worry it will be a security nightmare.
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Ryan McGinnis / Getty Images The Lost Nurdles Polluting Texas Beaches
Tiny plastic building blocks are spilled into oceans and waterways before they’re even made into plastic goods.
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Mark Wieland / Getty Teens Are Probably Drinking Too Much Caffeine
Products like Red Bull have sent thousands of adolescents to the emergency room. The people who market them insist they don’t need to be regulated.
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Michael J P / Shutterstock Finally, an Intervention That Might Have Helped Keep High-Risk Teens Alive
Training trusted adults to check in on recovering adolescents could be an important, yet overlooked, strategy in preventing suicide.
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Paul Sancya / AP New Tools Could Help Pin Down the Cause of a Failing Memory
By measuring the changing volume of patients’ brains, some physicians hope they can offer targeted treatments even without an official diagnosis.
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Avrajjal Ghosh / Barcroft India / Barcroft Media ... The Hitler Beetle and Other Oddities of Scientific Naming
No rules stop researchers—or even anyone who wins an auction—from giving new species any moniker they like.
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Steve Marcus / Reuters Hearing Aids’ Reputation Is Lagging Behind the Technology
Manufacturers say the devices can benefit just about everyone. But first they have to become cool.
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Orlin Wagner / AP American Health Care Is Flooded With Duplicate Medical Records
The lack of a standard labeling system can lead to confused doctors and worse care.
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Dan Balilty / AP Grieving Parents Are Turning to Posthumous IVF
Is preserving a Jewish bloodline worth creating a child who will never know her father?
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Rutgers University Underwater Drones Could Transform Hurricane Forecasts
The key to predicting storm intensity may lie below the surface.
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Steve Helber / AP Hemp Has a Research Problem
Farmers are in a rush to grow the once-taboo plant, but scientists still haven’t figured out how they should do it.
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Amy Sancetta / AP The Best Real Estate to Get Animals Through Climate Change
Deep in shady forests and at the bottom of towering canyons, climate refugia could provide the stability that vulnerable species need.
