Editor's Note

Genetics

A story about why people get fat may be just that

In this issue, reporters look at efforts to find the genes that could be responsible for the obesity crisis and how evolution acts on diseases such as Ebola and tuberculosis.

Earth

Sometimes value lies deep below the surface

Stories on jellyfish, Ebola, carbon capture's future and heart disease's past reveal how crises old and new often lead to science's healthiest advances.

Astronomy

The craziest NASA mission ever proposed

In this issue, Meghan Rosen provides an in-depth report on that mission, but without the erroneous conclusion that the Asteroid Redirect Mission has much to do with asteroid defense.

Astronomy

Listening in on cosmic messages

Yet to be deciphered, fast radio bursts represent the latest messages from space with the potential to tell us more about the cosmos.

Climate

Adapting to climate change: Let us consider the ways

Many organisms do have tools to deal with sudden environmental changes, as freelance writer and Science News “Wild Things” blogger Sarah Zielinski reports.

Life

A new view of dinosaurs, a clearer view of lunar origins

Tech

Scientists struggle to find signals in the noise

Even in a simple system like email, detecting the signal from the noise is not always easy. It can be even more difficult separating a dazzling discovery from dust or whether a breast mass is cancerous or benign.

Health & Medicine

Your brain on marijuana: two views

Many of the “facts” that people believe to be true about marijuana are not supported by science, and while the pro-pot lobby cherry-picks data to support its arguments (denying marijuana’s addictiveness, for example), so too do anti-marijuana groups, which play up pot’s dangers.

Science & Society

One of the best ways for kids to learn science: by doing it

A biodegradable Band-Aid. A low-cost, ultrasonic guide to parallel parking. A reinvention of the toilet. These were among the nearly 1,400 science fair projects on display at the 2014 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Science News’ parent organization, the Society for Science & the Public, has run the annual event since 1950.

Genetics

New tools reveal new truths about fungi, flies, antibiotics

In the newsroom, any story about a new scientific method faces an uphill battle. In this issue are a number of stories that feature how science is done.

Earth

Science can save lives, but only if society lets it

Society faces lots of problems that science can’t yet fix. But there are also plenty of cases in which scientists know enough to avert tragedy.