Feature
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Health & Medicine
Weight Matters, Even in the Womb
Status at birth can foreshadow illnesses decades later.
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Materials Science
Making Stuff Last
Chemistry and materials science step up to preserve history, old and new.
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Materials Science
Metal Makeover
Metallic glasses with extraordinary strength and corrosion resistance have been known for decades, but only recently have researchers been able to make such alloys on a large scale from inexpensive iron.
By Peter Weiss -
Animals
Hide and See
A new look at fish on coral reefs considers the possibility that all that riotous color has its inconspicuous side.
By Susan Milius -
Chemistry
Solar Hydrogen
With the vision of a hydrogen economy looming ever larger in people's minds, scientists have picked up the pace of their pursuit of materials that use solar energy to split water and make clean-burning hydrogen fuel.
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Gene Doping
Inserting genes for extra strength or speed could give athletes an unbeatable, and perhaps undetectable, advantage in competitive sports.
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Health & Medicine
Creepy-Crawly Care
Encouraging results from research on medical uses for maggots and leeches, coupled with recent government approval of both therapies, lend credibility to the idea that some live organisms deserve a place in the medical armamentarium.
By Ben Harder -
Reworking Intuition
Financially endangered companies rapidly reorganized to become profitable after key staff members ran simulated companies in 2-day sessions organized by a San Diego psychologist.
By Bruce Bower -
Materials Science
One-Upping Nature’s Materials
Striving for designer substances that build themselves from individual molecules.
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Animals
Will Mr. Bowerbird Fall for a Robot?
Push a button and she turns her head. But can she turn his?
By Susan Milius -
Humans
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Scientists and educators increasingly are using analyses of bad science in movies, as well as the good, to inform the public about scientific facts and principles.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
Vitamin D: What’s Enough?
Most researchers studying vitamin D agree that many people would benefit from more of the vitamin, but they haven't yet decided just how much.
By Janet Raloff