Front Matter

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• Science and Culture: High-tech tries to reveal artistic motivations
  Science cannot confirm an artist’s intentions, but it can give art aficionados and historians plenty of novel insights to ponder. Image courtesy of © The Art Institute of Chicago.

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• Inner Workings: Ancient teeth reveal clues about microbiome evolution
  Samples of dental plaque elucidate how microbial inhabitants have affected peoples and lifestyles across space and time. Image courtesy of Christina Warinner (University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK).

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• News Feature: Better models for brain disease
  Traditional animal models have had limited success mimicking mental illnesses. Emerging technologies offer the potential for a major model upgrade. Image courtesy of Madeline A. Lancaster and Juergen A. Knoblich. Reproduced with permission from Macmillan Publishers: Nature, copyright (2013).

PNAS in the News

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• Handwriting analysis hints at timing of Hebrew biblical texts
  Analysis of inscriptions on ceramic shards excavated from a desert fortress in southern Judah provides insights into the composition of key biblical texts before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, according to a study.
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• Reconstructing history of Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave
  Researchers report a chronology for Paleolithic human and animal occupation of the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave based on radiocarbon dates.
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• Origins of advanced mathematical ability
  Researchers report evidence for the neural basis of advanced mathematical thinking.
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