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Science

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You Will Feel No Pain

Doctors and patients swear hypnosis works, but after years of research we still don’t know how

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When Clock Birds Sing

Caution: Unexpected birdsong can cause flashbacks that lift the listener out of time and place

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Forget Y2K!

Equinox seen from the astronomic calendar of Pizzo Vento at Fondachelli Fantina, Sicily

Calendar

It took two millennia to get the one we now use; we owe a lot to the sun and moon, to Caesar, Pope Gregory and, oh yes, the Earl of Chesterfield

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To Save a Falcon

An American biologist treks the steppes and the Gobi to rescue a Mongolian raptor that’s in deep trouble

Cliff Palace

A Social Divide Written in Stone

Archaeological research at Cliff Palace resumes after 80 years. Surprises are the order of the day

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View from the Cockpit

It’s a fast and furious time in science and technology, and a man who knows promises only more of the same

A computer-generated image representing space debris

Casting a High-Tech Net for Space Trash

A cloud of spacecraft parts and debris envelops the earth. Keeping track of it takes the best we have

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When Monkeys Move to Town

Loitering on sidewalks and begging at shops, macaques are familiar, but not always welcome, sights in cities across Asia

Rafinesque Constantine Samuel 1783-1840

An “Odd Fish” Who Swam Against the Tide

The pioneering naturalist Constantine Rafinesque did just about everything, and he always did it his way

National Museum of Natural History

Expanding a Mission

The National Museum of Natural History aims to become a hub for science education

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Salt of the Earth

We can’t live without it. Salt runs through our language, our history, and our veins

Human embryonic stem cells in cell culture

Ailing? Just Add Cells

Now we can grow the cells from which all others derive, but ethical questions are involved

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Trailing the Big Cats

For a walk on the wild side, follow the tracks of a tiger or look at a lion close up at the National Zoo

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Let it Snow

Ski resorts have snowmaking down to a science – now sometimes the real stuff gets in the way

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Let’s Root for the Coot

This feisty waterbird is very common. That’s part of the problem

Dominique Voynet, 2008

Coming to Terms

Our names for people who respect the environment should be as varied as the ways we see it

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The Battle of the Dams

Those who think some of our rivers are a dammed shame argue for the structures to come down

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The Sargasso Sea

Out in the Atlantic, strange creatures make their home among seaweed in a floating lens of warm water

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The Enemy Within

Termites are covert destroyers. You don’t hear them or see them until they come swarming out of the woodwork on their spectacular mating flight

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