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COVID-19: What the Autopsies Reveal

Pathologists are starting to get a closer look at the damage that COVID-19 does to the body by carefully examining the internal organs of people who have died from the novel coronavirus. Transcript to come shortly. Rights & Permissions ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S) W. Wayt Gibbs W. Wayt Gibbs is a contributing editor for Scientific American […]

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Birds on Rhinos’ Back Help Them Avoid Poachers

Black rhinos have terrible eyesight. Even so, these giant African herbivores easily fend off hungry lions and hyenas. “Their basic body plan has proved to be good enough to survive on a savanna full of large predators, being very large, thick-skinned—big, rapierlike horns.” Victoria University of Melbourne behavioral ecologist Roan Plotz. But those protective traits […]

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CRISPR Gene Editing May Help Scale Up Coronavirus Testing

Testing is one of the most daunting obstacles to overcome before thousands can again pack beaches and baseball stadiums. The much-lauded gene-editing technology CRISPR is now making a bid to help fill in holes in testing regimens. Last week researchers published a study in Nature Biotechnology describing a new assay for the novel coronavirus that causes […]

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On the Heels of a Light Beam

As a 16-year-old boy, Albert Einstein imagined chasing after a beam of light in the vacuum of space. He mused on that vision for years, turning it over in his mind, asking questions about the relation between himself and the beam. Those mental investigations eventually led him to his special theory of relativity. Such thought […]