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摘要

Five geckos launched into orbit by the Russian space agency have perished. Four females and one male were sent into space aboard the Photon-M satellite to study how zero gravity affected theirsexual habits. Now the satellite has returned to Earth. The lizards appear to have frozen in flight. The extreme winters that froze North America for the last two years may have been partly caused by the melting of Arctic ice. Climate models suggest that shrinking sea ice forces heat into the upper atmosphere, which weakens the jet stream and allows chilly Arctic air to spread south (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038comms5646).