Science & Society
A new map exhibit documents evolving views of Earth’s interior
"Beneath Our Feet" puts maps on display to show how people have envisioned and explored Earth’s subsurface.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Simulating the universe using Einstein’s theory of gravity may solve cosmic puzzles
Better simulating the dense parts of the universe could improve scientists’ view of how the universe evolves.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Neuroscience
See these first-of-a-kind views of living human nerve cells
A catalog of live brain cells reveals stunning diversity and intricate shapes, and may help scientists understand the abilities of the human brain.
Notebook
Animals
The Lord Howe stick insect is officially back from the dead
New genomic sequencing confirms that stick insects discovered near Lord Howe Island are the assumed-extinct Lord Howe stick insect.
Features
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How Asian nomadic herders built new Bronze Age cultures
Ancient steppe herders traveled into Europe and Asia, leaving their molecular mark and building Bronze Age cultures.
More Stories from the November 25, 2017 issue
- Life
Gut fungi might be linked to obesity and inflammatory bowel disorders
Fungi are overlooked contributors to health and disease.
- Environment
Pollution killed 9 million people in 2015
First global look estimates the massive human and financial toll caused by pollution-related health problems.
- Cosmology
What detecting gravitational waves means for the expansion of the universe
The latest LIGO signal proves that gravitational waves travel at the speed of light, ruling out a swath of cosmological theories in the process.
- Life
Nanoscale glitches let flowers make a blue blur that bees can see
Bees learn about colorful floral rings faster when nanoscale arrays aren’t quite perfect.
- Genetics
New CRISPR gene editors can fix RNA and DNA one typo at a time
New gene editors can correct common typos that lead to disease.
- Quantum Physics
Light’s weird dual nature weathers trip to space and back
“Delayed-choice” experiment performed in space reaffirms the idea that light can behave like a wave or a particle.
- Paleontology
T. rex’s silly-looking arms were built for slashing
Tyrannosaurus rex may have used its small arms for slashing prey.
- Climate
As ice retreats, frozen mosses emerge to tell climate change tale
Plants long entombed beneath Canadian ice are now emerging, telling a story of warming unprecedented in the history of human civilization.
- Tech
This is the lightest robot that can fly, swim and take off from water
Lightweight, insect-inspired robot can swim, fly and leap from the surface of water.
- Animals
Climate change may threaten these bamboo-eating lemurs
Longer dry spells and more nutrient-poor bamboo might eventually doom the greater bamboo lemur, a critically endangered species.
- Astronomy
An interstellar asteroid might have just been spotted for the first time
A newly spotted asteroid might be the first known to come from outside the solar system, and it could carry information about the makeup of alien planet systems.
- Physics
Photons are caught behaving like superconducting electrons
Light particles, or photons, swap energy like electrons in a superconductor.
- Earth
Wind may be driving the melting of East Antarctica’s largest glacier
Winds may be helping warm ocean waters speed up the melting of East Antarctica’s largest glacier.
- Earth
Dino-dooming asteroid impact created a chilling sulfur cloud
The Chicxulub impact spewed more sulfur than previously believed.
- Health & Medicine
Artificial insulin-releasing cells may make it easier to manage diabetes
Synthetic cells crafted in the lab could provide a more precise, longer-lasting diabetes treatment.
- Animals
No more than 800 orangutans from this newly identified species remain
Endangered population of orangutans is the oldest surviving red ape lineage, a new study finds.
