Feature
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Words Get in the Way
New studies explore people's tendency to have trouble recalling faces or other hard-to-describe perceptions after giving verbal accounts of them, with an eye toward improving police interviewing techniques with crime eyewitnesses.
By Bruce Bower -
Happy Anniversary
In the 50 years since the discovery of DNA's double helix structure, scientists have developed striking new ways to visualize the molecule.
By John Travis -
Anthropology
The Stone Masters
Investigations of modern-day expert and novice craftsmen of stone tools and decorative stone beads offer insights into the making of stone implements thousands and perhaps even millions of years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Ecosystems
Cultivating Weeds
Some formerly mild-mannered plants turn into horticultural bullies when planted far outside their native range.
By Janet Raloff -
Inside Violent Worlds
Political conflict and terror look different up close and local.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
The Vaccinia Dilemma
To inform the current debate on who should be vaccinated for smallpox given the possibility of—or in the event of—a bioterrorism attack, researchers are using mathematical models and data from vaccination campaigns and past smallpox outbreaks.
By Ben Harder -
Tech
Building a Better Shuttle
Researchers are working on both more heat-tolerant materials and totally new designs for vehicles that might ultimately replace the space shuttle.
By Ron Cowen -
After West Nile Virus
As biologists try to estimate the impact of West Nile virus on wildlife, it's not the famously susceptible crows that are causing alarm but much rarer species.
By Susan Milius -
Computing
Pictures Only a Computer Could Love
New, unconventional lenses shape scenes into pictures for computers, not people, so that computer-equipped microscopes, cameras, and other optical devices can see more with less.
By Peter Weiss -
Humans
When Biologists Get Bombed
Or shot at by soldiers. This isn't textbook conservation science.
By Susan Milius -
Agriculture
Detoxifying Desert’s Manna
Farmers need no longer fear the sweet pea's dryland cousin.
By Janet Raloff