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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.
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Kampee Patisena / Getty The Slow-Motion Bacteria Buried Deep in the Ocean's Floor
To survive in one of the planet’s most energy-limited environments, a hardy group of microbes appears to live at a glacial pace.
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Philippe Wojazer / Reuters Air Pollution Might Make Dangerous Bacteria Harder to Kill
Inhaling black carbon could boost some disease-causing bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics.
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Jeff Barnard / AP Does Salvaging Scorched Trees Hurt the Environment?
Removing trees killed by fires might not be as damaging to forests as previously thought.
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Albeiro Lopera / Reuters How Math Can Tell You When to Move On in Life
Moderation seems to be a better approach than greed—for foragers, at least.
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Mike Blake / Reuters Humans' Hidden Ability to Navigate the World With Tongue Clicks
Researchers are discovering just how easily both blind and sighted people can be trained to echolocate.
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Rafael Marchante / Reuters Dogs' Love Isn't Unconditional After All
The more difficult the task, the less likely they will be generous.
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Nacho Doce / Reuters Rainforest Trees Are Like Islands
The bigger the tree, the greater the diversity of ant species that call it home
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Stringer / Reuters Solving the Mystery of Uncombable Hair
Scientists are looking at the genetic profiles of families with a history of a rare syndrome that affects follicle structure.
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Boya Sun / Quanta Magazine A New Way for Viruses to Hijack Cells
Many viruses thrive by blocking cells’ internal messages, but one particularly crippling infection can actually change these messages’ content.
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Sarah E. Richards / AP Natural Bridges Pick Up Vibrations From Distant Human Activity
The geological wonders could be at risk.
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Carlos Osorio / AP How Well Can Computers Read Fiction?
Computational tools have the ability to analyze books’ emotional arcs, but it’s unclear what they can really find out about literature.
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Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters The Love Song of Jeremy the Left-Coiled Snail
How researchers found a mate for a rare mollusc
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Marta Iwanek / Quanta Magazine Uncovering Cells' Hidden Genetic Scaffolding
A 17-years-long study reveals how the complex relationships between a cell’s genes allow it to function.
