Feature
- Humans
In Search of a Scientific Revolution
A year after self-publishing a best-selling book in which he proposes a new framework for doing science, Stephen Wolfram is taking new steps to transform science.
- Health & Medicine
Blood Sugar Fix
A new class of experimental drugs that mimic the actions of the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 shows benefits against type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes.
-
Risky Business
The science of decision making grapples with sex, race, and power.
- Earth
High-Flying Science, with Strings Attached
In the hands of scientists, kites do serious data gathering.
- Materials Science
Layered Approach
A decade-old method for creating thin coatings is poised to move from the lab to countless low- and high-tech products.
- Plants
Emergency Gardening
High-tech tissue culture is helping some ultrarare plants finally have sprouts of their own.
-
Old Worms, New Aging Genes
The genes and hormonal signals that regulate life span in worms may do the same in people.
- Earth
Air Sickness
Studies have begun showing subtle but substantial harmful effects in outwardly healthy people who regularly breathe hazy air.
- Earth
Catch Zero
It generally has taken less than a generation for modern, industrial-scale fishing, once deployed in a new plot of ocean, to exhaust the vast majority of the sea’s edible bounty and leave behind decimated ecosystems and depleted economic opportunities.
- Physics
Mastering the Mixer
Almost anything can happen when a batch of grains or powders is mixed—including striking, swirling patterns and spontaneous, total separation—so researchers are playing with beads, salt, sand, and other particles in simple tumblers to find out what's going on.
- Paleontology
Learning from the Present
New field studies of unfossilized bones, as well as databases full of information about current fossil excavations and previous fossil finds, are providing insights into how complete—or incomplete—Earth's fossil record may be.
- Astronomy
Supernova Spectacular
Studying starburst galaxies, relatively nearby galaxies that are undergoing a tremendous rate of star formation, may reveal how elliptical galaxies arose and black holes grew in the early universe.
