Feature
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Science News of the Year 2001
A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2001.
- Astronomy
Journey through the Universe
A new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum traces the development of tools used to study the heavens and how they have changed our understanding of the universe.
- Math
Polyhedron Man
Mathematician and artist George Hart has created a variety of sculptures based on polyhedra and collaborated with other researchers to define and visualize new geometric shapes.
- Anthropology
Evolving in Their Graves
Understanding what early, rudimentary burials meant to modern humans' antecedents—assuming early humans did, in fact, bury their dead—could help anthropologsts untangle a lasting mystery of human evolution.
- Paleontology
Turn Your Head and Roar
The analysis of fossils that preserve evidence of diseases that appear to be similar or identical to afflictions that strike modern animals, including humans, could help scientists better grasp the causes and courses of today's ailments.
- Tech
Gadgets from the Quantum Spookhouse
Despite much fanfare about proposed computers based on weird features of quantum mechanics, a whole array of other quantum technologies—navigation devices, chip-making equipment, atomic clocks and more—may also outshine their conventional cousins and be easier to implement than full-blown quantum computers.
- Math
Knot Possible
Knot theorists are getting closer to their goal of developing practical procedures for distinguishing knotted curves from unknotted ones.
- Animals
The Tropical Majority
The abundant studies of temperate-zone birds may have biased ornithology when it comes to understanding the tropics.
- Earth
Tough Choices
Federal programs to preserve water in streams during droughts have prompted lawsuits and new pressures on endangered species and the law that protects them.
- Earth
The Mountain
Tall, steep slopes, a crest of glacial ice that's larger than that on any other mountain in the lower 48 United States, and a burgeoning population in its surrounding valleys combine to make Washington state's Mt. Rainier the most dangerous volcano in America.
- Health & Medicine
Things Just Mesh
Researching are studying ways to make stents, which prop open arteries, even better at keeping these channels open.
- Computing
Sneaky Calculations
The same communication system that brings you the Web page of your choice can be exploited to perform computations.
