Feature
- Astronomy
The Milky Way’s Middle
Sensitive X-ray, infrared, and radio telescopes are now providing an extraordinarily clear view of the dust-shrouded center of our galaxy.
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- Anthropology
A Fair Share of the Pie
A cross-cultural project suggests that people everywhere divvy up food and make other economic deals based on social concepts of fairness, not individual self-interest.
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Meeting Danielle the Tarantula
Insect zoos have no lions, tigers, or bears but can give plenty of thrills, courtesy of tarantulas, giant beetles, and exotic grasshoppers.
- Physics
Anatomy of a Lightning Ball
Metallic fuzz, acid droplets, or other fairy dust may conjure up ball lightning (with video clips).
- Earth
It’s a Rough World
Scientists are using fractals, mathematical forms that can describe objects with fractional dimensions, to model phenomena such as wildfire propagation and the spread of toxic fluids through rocks and soil.
- Health & Medicine
Germs That Do a Body Good
Research on probiotic bacteria—living microbes that confer health benefits when introduced into the body—offers growing medical promise.
- Health & Medicine
The Persistent Problem of Cystic Fibrosis
Ten years after the discovery of the gene that, when mutated, causes cystic fibrosis, researchers are still struggling to understand why deadly lung infections are so common among people with the disease.
- Computing
Calculating Cartoons
Thanks to sophisticated computer simulations of the laws of physics, spectacular special effects—plus a zoo of strange but real-looking creatures—increasingly enliven movie screens and computer-game consoles.
- Materials Science
Flattery for Faience
By replicating ancient materials with their own hands, researchers are gaining new insights into details of Egyptian faience manufacture that have been lost for thousands of years.
- Planetary Science
Exploring the Red Planet
Searching for signs of subsurface water on the Red Planet and analyzing the elemental and mineral composition of surface rock, NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft begins its main mapping mission next month and may shed light on several enduring puzzles about the planet.
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