In the 1980s, manufactures began making cockroach baits that combined sweet glucose with deadly insecticides. By 1993, many cockroach populations somehow developed an aversion to the bait. Now, 20 years later, scientists finally understand how the roaches beat these traps.

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Learn the art of Practical Spoonbending

Or, to be more precise, practical spoon-melting. Do you know about a de-lite-ful little trick that some scientists like to play on one another that causes a spoon to melt in hot liquids? Did you know that once it caused the victims to fill themselves with mercury?

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How a 3D Printer Saved This Baby's Life

Six weeks after he was born, Kaiba Gionfriddo began to experience severe breathing difficulties, the result of a rare obstruction in his lungs called bronchial malacia. In desperation, doctors attempted a technique never tried before on a human: they 3D-printed a splint from biological material.

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Meet the fungi growing all over your body

Your body is covered in fungus. No, really, it is. And now, for the first time, scientists have mapped the fungal diversity all across your skin. The results show that the fungal richness varies across your body, with the most diverse communities, not surprisingly, living on your feet.

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Chris Hadfield's Cosmonaut Comrade Prepares To Colonize Mars

Soyuz TMA-07M Commander and ISS Expedition 34/35 Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko hasn't been slacking off since his Soyuz landing last Tuesday. According to Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, he has just simulated a landing on Mars and a spacewalk under simulated Martian conditions. Only four days after his return to …

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The Horrifying Flame Tank of the 1930s Meant to End All Wars

In 1936, Hugo Gernsback proposed a terrifying new war machine meant to be more efficient than any that had come before it. He called it the "flame tank." And while the thing looks absolutely horrifying in every way (those appear to be dozens of people being burned alive by the tank's flame guns), the stated goal of…

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The Biological Reason Why You Get Itchy

Researchers have discovered the molecular link between the cells in skin that sense itching and the nerve cells that relay the perception of that itch to the brain. Take that molecule away, and the itchy sensation vanishes. So far, the molecules, cells and circuitry in question have been identified in mice, but this…

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