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.
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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.
- 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.
- Ecosystems
Cultivating Weeds
Some formerly mild-mannered plants turn into horticultural bullies when planted far outside their native range.
- 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.
- 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.
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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.
- 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.
- Tech
Refueling Rockets
Hybrid-rocket fuels—part solid, part liquid—have been around for a half-century, and they may just now be taking off.
- Health & Medicine
More than a Kick
Nicotine ramps up activity throughout the body, making the drug a suspect in many tobacco-related ailments.
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Blood Work
Knowing the identity of every protein in the liquid portion of blood could offer new ways to detect—or even treat and prevent—many diseases.
- Tech
On the Rebound
When electronically reversed in time, acoustic echoes can zero in on a spot in space, focusing sound energy so that it may zap tumors, detect submarines, or transmit private and secure information.
