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How does arsenic kill?Arsenic is a naturally occurring element with properties similar to those found in phosphorus. It is also a deadly toxin that is difficult to detect.
By Charles Q. Choi Last updated
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Why does soda fizz?Soda's effervescence comes from processes that super-saturate the liquid with carbon dioxide, which later escapes from the soft drink as tiny, effervescent bubbles.
By Charles Q. Choi Last updated
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Why do we shiver when we're cold?If the surface of your skin gets too chilly, the brain sets into motion a series of warming tricks such as shivering.
By Charles Q. Choi Last updated
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'Unlucky' creatures that enter rare Red Sea brine pools are immediately stunned to deathScientists recently discovered rare brine pools — dense, salty depressions — at the bottom of the Red Sea, where microbes thrive under extreme conditions.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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4D Implant Saves Babies with Breathing ProblemsA new "4D" medical device has saved the lives of three baby boys with life-threatening breathing problems, researchers say.
By Charles Q. Choi Last updated
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Mini Black Holes Easier To Make Than ThoughtEven if the mini monsters were created, they'd be destroyed before gobbling anything up.
By Charles Q. Choi Last updated
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South African fossils may rewrite history of human evolutionFossils found at the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa may be much older than previously thought.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Which is colder: The North or South Pole?Both of Earth's poles are cold, but which has more ice and wins the prize for "coldest" pole?
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Why do parrots live so long?Scientists may have untangled the mystery as to why parrots have such long lifespans.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Massive ice wall may have blocked passage for first AmericansThe first people who migrated to the Americas from Asia may have had to take a circuitous coastal route, as direct passage overland may have been blocked by a massive wall of ice.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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7 theories on the origin of lifeReference From lightning to space rocks, here are ideas for how the first life on Earth came to be.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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1.5 million-year-old fossil rewrites 'Out of Africa' theoryA new analysis of a 1.5 million-year-old human vertebra found in Israel suggests that ancient human relatives dispersed out of Africa in multiple waves.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Fusion experiment smashes record for generating energy, takes us a step closer to a new source of powerThe Joint European Torus fusion experiment in the U.K. has set a new record for generating energy.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Rogue black hole spotted on its own for the first timeAstronomers may have for the first time detected and measured the mass of an isolated stellar-mass black hole, a new study finds.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Top 10 things that make humans specialHere are 10 things that make humans special when compared with the rest of the animal kingdom.
By Laura Geggel Published
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Infamous Mars meteorite contains organic molecules. But they aren't proof of life.Organic molecules in a Mars meteorite that crash-landed on Earth are not signs of life, but instead formed in chemical reactions between water and rock.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Unknown human ancestor may have walked a bit like a bear on its hind legsAncient footprints reveal a mysterious relative of humans may have lived at the same time and in the same area as the famous human ancestor "Lucy" in Tanzania.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Newly named human species may be the direct ancestor of modern humansHomo bodoensis is named after a 600,000-year-old skull found in Bodo D'ar, Ethiopia, in 1976.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Arabia was 'cornerstone' in early human migrations out of Africa, study suggestsThe largest-ever study of Arab genomes has revealed the most ancient of all modern Middle Eastern populations and is shedding light on how modern humans may have first expanded across the globe.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Oldest evidence of humans using tobacco discovered in UtahCharred seeds found in the Utah desert represent the earliest-known human use of tobacco, nearly 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, researchers said.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Fossilized footprints in New Mexico are earliest 'unequivocal evidence' of people in the AmericasFossilized human footprints found in New Mexico reveal that people dwelled in the Americas during the last ice age's peak — conclusive proof of early migration to the New World.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Dense 'hot spots' on a young star reveal what Earth's sun may have looked in its infancyAstronomers may have captured the best view yet of matter colliding with the surface of a young star, findings that may shed light on what the sun looked like in its youth.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Dead stars crashing into live stars may trigger a new type of supernovaAstronomers have uncovered evidence of explosions triggered by dead stars ramming into live stars, possible proof of a new type of supernova, a new study finds.
By Charles Q. Choi Published
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Astronomers catch fizzled-out gamma-ray burst from supernovaA fizzled example of a gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion known in the universe, suggests these outbursts can be surprisingly brief, researchers say.
By Charles Q. Choi Published

