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18
20
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5 STORY ONE
s No sign of dark matter in
solar system’s backyard
8 LIFE
s Mystery of pigeons’ magnetic
sense of direction deepens
s Disrobing for safety
s Early worms may have done
spadework for new life-forms
s Bat killer’s origins confirmed
10 MOLECULES
s Synthetic biology creates six
DNA alternatives
11 MATTER & ENERGY
s New evidence for long-sought
Majorana fermions
12 GENES & CELLS
s Going under gives bees jet lag
s Earlier polar bear origins
s Lab-made hair follicles take
root in bald mice
s Restoring night vision in mice
14 HUMANS
s Footprints show walking was
out of step in early hominid
16 BODY & BRAIN
s Autism and mom’s weight
s Some rats take the hard road,
others take it easy
s Rewriting drug memories
s Beautiful mind maps
18 ATOM & COSMOS
s Stellar ring points to two
exoplanets
s Setback in search for source
of highest-energy cosmic rays
Features
20 SECRET OF A LIFETIME
Scientists struggle to pin down
the precise life span of a free
neutron.
By Rebecca Cheung
22 TRACES OF INAUGURAL LIFE
COVER STORY: Clues to the
nature of the very first cells
may be seared in rocks and
belched from vents.
By Sarah C.P. Williams
26 THE HOT AND COLD
OF PRIMING
Can unnoticed cues sway
behavior? The debate rages
among social psychologists.
By Bruce Bower
Departments
2 FROM THE EDITOR
4 NOTEBOOK
30 BOOKSHELF
31 FEEDBACK
32 PEOPLE
Julius von Bismarck brings
art to Europe’s premier
physics lab.
