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Science

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Mountain Messengers

Scientists scale peaks and study plants to understand the impact of warming

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Up in Smoke

Amazon research that has withstood thieves and arsonists now faces its greatest challenge

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Ground Thaw

Geographer Christopher Burn explains why permafrost is thawing

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Spy On “Old Faithful”

Giant Palm Found Hiding Under Madagascar Sun

Frogs on the EDGE

Maverick Wave Theory

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Turn the Page

Electronic books may soon vie with library cards for space in your pocket

Jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond—the largest-known deep blue diamond in the world—to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It arrived in a plain brown package by registered mail, insured for one million dollars. Surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds and hanging from a chain with 45 diamonds, the rare gem attracts 6 million visitors a year to the Natural History Museum.

Glow-in-the-Dark Jewels

How the Hope Diamond’s mysterious phosphorescence led to “fingerprinting” blue diamonds

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The Big Red Hope

“Tinkerbell” in Southern Skies

Despite $100 Oil, U.S. Gas Still a Bargain

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UPDATE: State of Emergency

The latest on the endangered mountain gorillas in war-ravaged Congo

What Bugged the Dinosaurs?: Insects, Disease, and Death in the Cretaceous

Did the Dinosaurs Bug Out?

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Pyramid Ages the Aztecs

Sardines

Good News-bad News in a Tin of Sardines

Bright idea: Wolfgang Ketterle (in his M.I.T lab) hopes to discover new forms of matter by studying ultracold atoms.

The Coldest Place in the Universe

Physicists in Massachusetts come to grips with the lowest possible temperature: absolute zero

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Sound and Fury

Norman Mailer’s anger and towering ego propelled-and undermined-his prodigious output

To learn how the mind works, biologist Laurie Santos (with a research subject on Cayo Santiago) studies a seemingly paradoxical question: Do monkeys assume that people act like monkeys?

Thinking Like a Monkey

What do our primate cousins know and when do they know it? Researcher Laurie Santos is trying to read their minds

Absolute Zero

Why Is A Negative Number Called Absolute Zero?

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