Feature
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Physics
Magnetic Overthrow
Researchers have discovered and begun to exploit a fundamentally new way to exert magnetic influences, at least on extremely small scales.
By Peter Weiss -
Humans
Science News of the Year 2005
A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2005.
By Science News -
Humans
Irreplaceable Perplexity 101
An imaginary classroom provides lessons on the all-too-real debate over evolution and intelligent design.
By Bruce Bower -
Ecosystems
Squirt Alert
A sea animal of unknown origins and lacking any known predator has begun commandeering ecosystems in cool coastal waters throughout the world.
By Janet Raloff -
Humans
Archival Science
Photos from the Science Service archive at the Smithsonian offer fresh views of the Scopes evolution trial.
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Earth
Changes in the Air
Changes in the atmospheric concentration of oxygen through geologic time, some gradual and some drastic, have strongly shaped evolution among many types of creatures.
By Sid Perkins -
Math
Surface Story
Mathematicians have zeroed in on a new type of minimal surface based on a double helix.
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The Sum of the Parts
Some researchers are breaking genomes into a collection of parts and precisely reassembling them to do a scientist's bidding.
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Anthropology
The Pirahã Challenge
A linguist has sparked controversy with his proposal that a tribe of about 200 people living in Brazil's Amazon rain forest speaks a language devoid of counting and color terms, clauses, and other elements of grammar often considered to be universal.
By Bruce Bower -
Ecosystems
Valuing Nature
With help from ecotourism-oriented commerce, the threatened birds of Uganda's Mabira Forest Reserve might just save themselves and set an example for conservationists elsewhere.
By Ben Harder -
Chemistry
A Skunk Walks into a Bar . . .
Research into the chemistry behind unpleasant beer flavors may someday lead to a more flavor-stable brew.
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Planetary Science
Mars or Bust!
Scientists are working to overcome the biomedical challenges that would hinder a human voyage to Mars.
By Katie Greene