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January 25, 2013 In the story The Little Prince, a boy from a tiny planet lands on Earth. The boy is tall, the planet small, and you worry he might fall off. In real life, real Earthlings once had a hint of this experience. It was 1972, and you can go there with them.

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January 24, 2013 Mainers say the shrimp have a sweet and delicate flavor. But there won't be many of them to go around this year. The fishing season is short, the allowable catch is small and the number of shrimp in the Gulf of Maine has been dwindling for a while now.

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January 24, 2013 Most dogs will eat just about anything. But, that wasn't always the case. The domestic dog's ancestor, the gray wolf, only ate meat. And a new report suggests hanging out with humans — and our garbage — may have helped them evolve to digest a wide range of foods.

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January 24, 2013 Multitaskers tend to test high for traits like risk-taking, sensation-seeking and impulsivity. And those very traits interfere with people's ability to stay focused, researchers say.

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January 24, 2013 In New Zealand, where they do things differently, middle schoolers are taught statistics, probability and experimental science in an odd way. They explore frustrating supermarket lines, ungraspable tape, foot seeking thumbtacks and carpet soiling toast.

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January 24, 2013 The world is full of data — and that's a problem. We have to find a place to store all those digital photos, tax records and unfinished novels. British scientists have demonstrated a possible solution: They've stored all of Shakespeare's sonnets on several small stretches of DNA.

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January 23, 2013 After researchers created versions of the bird flu virus that could spread more easily, critics began to worry that the work could spawn a pandemic if a virus escaped from the lab. After halting their work for more than a year, scientists now say the benefits outweigh the risks, and they are set to restart their experiments.

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January 23, 2013 The genes of the root vegetable have a juicy story to tell of trans-oceanic adventure. A DNA analysis of sweet potatoes adds evidence to the theory that ancient Polynesians visited South America long before the Europeans arrived.

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January 23, 2013 An NIH working group recommends that most of the agency's 360 research chimpanzees be sent to a sanctuary — a non-laboratory setting where chimps can live more natural lives. But even if the NIH accepts the recommendations, putting them into effect won't be easy.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist