Feature
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Life from Scratch
Conjuring life in the lab from nothing but nonliving molecules may sound far-fetched, but the first synthetic life forms may soon be a reality.
- Archaeology
La Brea del Sur
Excavations at tar pits in Venezuela suggest that the fossils found there may rival those of the famed Rancho La Brea tar pits in Southern California.
- Animals
Not So Spineless
Looking for personalities in animals, even among spiders and insects, could add new twists to ideas about evolution and explain some odd animal behavior.
- Health & Medicine
A Different Side of Estrogen
Understanding estrogen's function is complicated by the fact that it can bind to two distinct receptors; scientists studying the second receptor now think that drugs targeting it could help a wide variety of ailments.
- Humans
Science News of the Year 2007
A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the past year.
- Math
Tied Up in Knots
Physicists have shown that tumbled strings will form surprisingly complex knots, helping explain how knots spontaneously form in nature.
- Earth
Dead Serious
Little progress has been made this decade in reducing the size of the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone, a massive area of oxygen-depleted water caused by agricultural and urban runoff.
- Earth
North by Northwest
The Earth's magnetic poles wander around quite a bit, a phenomenon that occasionally confounded ancient explorers but is proving useful for today's archaeologists.
- Health & Medicine
The Long Road to Beta Cells
In their quest to cure type 1 diabetes, scientists are finding that turning stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells is a lot harder than it first appeared.
- Ecosystems
Prairie Revival
Prairie restoration is attracting interest, but because so little long-term monitoring and comparative studies have been done, researchers are still wondering whether it's really possible to re-create a prairie.
- Agriculture
Lettuce Liability
A new industry program to self-regulate most salad producers is forcing affected farmers to choose between adopting measures unfriendly to wildlife and a loss of major markets for their greens.
- Archaeology
Muons Meet the Maya
Physicists are exploring the use of muons generated by cosmic rays to explore Mayan archaeological sites and to probe the interiors of volcanoes and shipping containers.
