Feature
- Tech
Is Anybody out There?
To speed the search for extraterrestrial life, researchers are using extreme conditions on Earth to develop a flotilla of detection devices to tease out signs of life in unlikely places.
- Health & Medicine
In Pixels and in Health
By simulating individual cells and their behavior inside the human body using a computer technique called agent-based modeling, scientists are gaining new insight into disease progression.
- Astronomy
Outer Limits
A slew of recently discovered objects at the far reaches of the solar system, including a possible tenth planet, are providing scientists with clues about the origin and evolution of this distant region.
By Ron Cowen - Animals
The Trouble with Chasing a Bee
Radar has long been able to detect high-flying clouds of insects, but it's taken much longer for scientists to figure out how to track your average bee.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Bright Lights, Big Cancer
A woman's blood provides better sustenance for breast cancer just after she's been exposed to bright light than when she's been in steady darkness.
By Ben Harder - 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.
- 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.