Feature

  1. Earth

    Proof of Burden

    Two teams of scientists report that the blood and urine of most Americans contain toxic cocktails of metals, artificial hormones, and chemical ingredients of plastics, flame retardants, pesticides, herbicides, and disinfectants.

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  2. Tech

    NanoLights! Camera! Action!

    Fluorescent particles of semiconductors are giving biologists a new view of cells and proteins.

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  3. How the Butterfly Gets Its Spots

    The spots on a butterfly wing turn out to be unusually good model systems for a range of disciplines from genetics to behavioral ecology, offering biologists a chance to paint the really big picture of how evolution works.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Sobering Work

    Unraveling alcohol's effects on the developing brain.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Dietary Dilemmas

    Low-carbohydrate diets, such as the Atkins diet, could be more effective for weight loss than low-fat diets are.

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  6. Essence of g

    New efforts to probe the biology of intelligence stir up a long-running controversy over what mental tests actually measure.

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  7. Genghis Khan’s Legacy?

    Genghis Kahn's military success 800 years ago may have spread a particular form of the Y chromosome, one he may have himself carried.

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  8. Planetary Science

    Forgotten Planet

    Mercury: The solar system's inner frontier.

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  9. Earth

    Electronic Jetsam

    Oceanographers are developing and deploying a variety of seafaring probes—including drifters, gliders, and scientific torpedoes—that will enable them to explore and monitor the ocean remotely.

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  10. Earth

    Why the Mercury Falls

    Certain pollutants can foster the localized fallout of mercury, a toxic heavy metal, from the atmosphere.

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  11. Raising Trust

    Some forager groups may nurture a sharing sense in their offspring.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Getting the Bugs Out of Blood

    Researchers are developing methods for inactivating all sorts of pathogens that could be found in blood, including West Nile virus, an emerging infection recently brought to the United States from Africa.

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