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Peter J. Fox / Getty The Mysterious Microbes in the Sky
Scientists are just beginning to understand how microscopic organisms that rise out of the ocean can help manage global temperatures.
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Carlos Barria / Reuters Why Are People So Unproductive in Short Windows of Time?
Who knows where the last hour went.
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Brandon Wade / Getty Why Does Sweetness Taste So Good?
A new study hints at how the brain flags different flavors as delicious or disgusting.
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Joe McDonald / Getty Elderly Mice's Brains Are Bad at Handling Jet Lag
… and could help explain why humans have so many sleep disruptions later in life.
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Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters You Don't Look Like Your Selfie
The closer your phone is to your face, the more it distorts your nose.
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Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters The Shape of Ancient Dice Suggests Shifting Beliefs in Fate and Chance
Roman dice were often visibly biased, but that might not have mattered to someone who believed in divine intervention.
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Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters A Language's Popularity Could Influence Its Grammar and Vocabulary
The number of people who speak a language seems to affect how new words and structures spread.
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Christoph Hetzmannseder / Getty A Genetic Clue to Why Stress Makes People Sleepy
This evolutionarily perplexing behavior could help repair damaged DNA.
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David Probandt / Andreas Ellrott / Max Planck ... Each Grain of the Ocean Floor Is Home to a Diverse, Mysterious World
Researchers are just beginning to shed light on the busy microbial communities that live on the seabed.
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Natalie Andrewson Why Do We Need to Sleep?
At a shiny new lab in Japan, an international team of scientists is trying to figure out what puts us under.
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China Daily CDIC / Reuters How Trust Shapes Nations' Safety Rules
How does a country decide what risks are acceptable in everyday life?
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Hannah Mckay / Reuters Squirrels Sort Their Nuts Like You Sort Your Fridge
The bushy-tailed rodents appear to remember where they put different types of food, at least for a few hours.
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Wilfredo Lee / AP A 1775 Map Reveals the Extent of Human Impact on Florida’s Coral Reefs
A chart maker’s drawings suggest even more coral has disappeared around the Florida Keys than previously thought.
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Stephane Mahe / Reuters The Secret Logic of Cows
A new mathematical model explores the complex reasons herd animals stay with a group or leave it.
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Eric Gaillard / Reuters The Unexpectedly Familiar Way Water Is Tasted
Research suggests that water is sensed by the same taste cells that detect sourness.
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Reuters The Vodka-Red-Bull Placebo Effect
People take more risks when downing caffeine-and-alcohol cocktails—but only if they know what they’re drinking.
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Yvonne Heijligers / Shutterstock Is Noise Pollution Making Desert Bugs Disappear?
Gas compressors in New Mexico seem to mess with some arthropods’ behavior.
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Brian Adamo / Wikimedia Commons Tracking Climate Change Through a Mushroom's Diet
Environmental differences that show up in fungi might give researchers a glimpse of climate shifts that have only just begun.
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Yuri Gripas / Reuters Can an Archive Capture the Scents of an Entire Era?
A molecular record of smells could give future generations a sense of the past.
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Olena Shmahalo / Quanta Magazine Why Does Heat Kill Cells?
The answer to a longstanding mystery suggests that proteins are far more malleable than previously thought.
