Feature
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All in the Family
Contrary to popular belief, species of salamanders, birds, beetles and fish prefer to mate with close kin.
- Health & Medicine
You, in a Dish
Human cells grown in conditions that mimic life inside the body are beginning to replace lab animals for testing drug candidates and industrial chemicals.
- Materials Science
Quantum Cocoon
Diamond can hold quantum information even at room temperature, which makes it a candidate material for future quantum computers.
- Humans
What’s Cookin’
Science and cooking have gotten intimate, resulting in a new understanding of how molecules are transformed into food and how food is transformed by the body.
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Dad’s Hidden Influence
Fathers share more than genes with their children. Where a man works, the chemicals he is exposed to, and even his age can leave a medical legacy for future children.
- Astronomy
From Dark Matter to Light
Recent surveys of the shapes, colors, and masses of galaxies have put a new focus on the nitty-gritty of galaxy formation—the complicated physics of the interaction of gas.
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Road to Eureka!
Researchers are beginning to identify neural components of insightful problem solving, though no scientific consensus exists on how the brain mediates "light-bulb" or "Aha!" moments.
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The Next Ocean
Increasing carbon dioxide in the air is changing the pH of the ocean, which could mean very different communities of sea creatures.
- Health & Medicine
Beyond Blood
Bloodless MRI seeks a more direct window into the working brain than conventional techniques.
- Paleontology
Twice upon a Time
New fossil finds suggest that the complex features of mammals originated earlier than previously thought and might even have evolved independently in different mammalian lineages.
- Health & Medicine
Rotten Remedy
The gas well-known for its smell of rotten eggs is, recent studies show, a ubiquitous concoction in the body. New studies suggest that the hydrogen sulfide occurring naturally inside us can be both friend and enemy to our health.
- Health & Medicine
Nurturing Our Microbes
Nurturing the microbes living in the human body can pay dividends—from shortening the length of colds to fighting obesity and osteoporosis.
