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Why are recurring dreams usually nightmares?Recurring dreams may feature taking a test the dreamer didn’t study for, having to make a speech or being attacked. Here's why our sleeping brain comes back to these unpleasant dreams again and again
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Are Neanderthals and Homo sapiens the same species?Scientists have been vollying the question back and forth for more than a century.
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6 species that scientists got wrongThe definition of a species is surprisingly unsettled, and the classifications of some of the best-known animals have come under scrutiny.
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What defines a species? Inside the fierce debate that's rocking biology to its coreFeature The question of what defines a species has vexed scientists across the ages, particularly in conservation, where decisions require a firm understanding of biodiversity.
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Did humans cross the Bering Strait after the land bridge disappeared?Evidence suggests that people likely boated across the narrow passage between Russia and Alaska when the crossing was submerged.
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Which animal is the best hunter? (And which is the worst?)There are lots of ways to measure predatory prowess, and the animal kingdom is full of worthy contenders.
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Why do leaves change color in the fall?Plants draw on a suite of pigments to produce energy from sunlight, and in the fall, some become more obvious than others.
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What's the deepest-occurring gemstone on Earth?Very few gems can withstand the intense pressure of Earth's mantle, but some require it to crystallize.
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Why do so many baby animals have spots?Youngsters often hunker down to hide from predators, and spots can provide excellent camouflage.
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How fast is a bullet?The answer depends on the design of the bullet and the gun, as well as on what happens once the bullet leaves the muzzle.
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Why can't we smell ourselves as well as we smell others?It isn't true that we can't smell ourselves, although we do become habituated to our own scent.
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Why are humans good long-distance runners?Walking upright has allowed us to become some of the best distance runners in the world, but at the expense of speed.
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How do plants with seedless fruit reproduce?Plants are capable of producing seedless fruit through a process called parthenocarpy, and humans have long leveraged it in agriculture.
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Did the Cambrian explosion really happen?Something unique does seem to have taken place during this time when so many animal groups first appeared, but it's not an open-and-shut case.
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Is there an 'up' and a 'down' in space?Any object with mass distorts the space-time continuum, which we perceive as gravity pulling us "down" toward that object's center.
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Meet 'Fanzor,' the 1st CRISPR-like system found in complex lifeScientists discovered Fanzor proteins, which work like CRISPR but are smaller and more easily delivered into cells, and used them to edit human DNA.
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Do all animals go through adolescence?All species experience the bodily changes of puberty, but the social lessons that define the shift from childhood to adulthood are more nuanced.
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What happens if you skydive through a cloud?What it's like to skydive through a cloud depends in part on the type of cloud, but regardless, you'll likely end up cold and wet.
