Feature
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Genes to Grow On
Researchers studying children with Williams syndrome say that the unusual condition emerges through a developmental process that's influenced but not predetermined by a genetic defect.
- Earth
Climate’s Long-Lost Twin
New geological evidence suggests that humans have started exploiting fossil fuels and altering Earth's atmosphere at precisely the moment when greenhouse gases could do the most damage to climate.
- Health & Medicine
Hear, Hear
A 14-year study of twin babies shows definitively for the first time that there's a link between middle ear infections and heredity.
- Paleontology
Sea Dragons
About 235 million years ago, as the earliest dinosaurs stomped about on land, some of their reptilian relatives slipped back into the surf, took on an aquatic lifestyle, and became ichthyosaurs—Greek for fish lizards.
- Health & Medicine
Cooking Up a Carcinogen
The discovery that acrylamide—a known animal carcinogen—forms in many foods as they fry or bake has prompted the development of an international research network to investigate whether it poses a threat.
- Tech
Eau, Brother!
The combination of advanced sensor materials and powerful computer chips promises devices that can sense threats ranging from bacteria in food to explosives in land mines.
- Physics
Hunting for Higher Dimensions
Inspired by recent theoretical insights, physicists at accelerators and gravitational laboratories are searching for clues to dimensions beyond the four dimensions of space-time.
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Keeping Bugs from Pumping Drugs
Researchers hope that attacking the machinery some microbes use to pump antimicrobial agents out of their cells may help deal with the increasing problem of drug resistance.
- Astronomy
Revved-Up Universe
Astronomers are busy testing the seemingly bizarre notion that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
- Animals
When Ants Squeak
In the past 20 years, researchers studying sound communication in ants have discovered a sort of ant-ernet, zinging with messages about lost relatives, great food, free rides for hitchhikers, caterpillars in search of ant partners, and impending doom.
- Chemistry
Questions of Origin
Two new studies renew controversy about the authenticity of a map that may be the first depiction of North America.
- Materials Science
Vision Quest
Increasing numbers of people with less-than-perfect vision can now wear contact lenses, thanks to innovations in lens design and materials.
