Feature
- 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.
- Health & Medicine
The Science of Secretin
The discovery that a gut hormone also exists in the brain may shed light on the origins of autism.
- Health & Medicine
Trans Fats
Increasing evidence links trans fats to health problems, and some researchers are looking for ways to reduce the fats in food.
- Health & Medicine
The Seeds of Malaria
By studying the molecular footprints of evolution in parasites and human hosts, geneticists are casting light on when and how malaria became the menace it is.
- Health & Medicine
Attacking Alzheimer’s
Some researchers now suggest that the so-called amyloid hypothesis is overstated and that other entities, including tau tangles, are as important as beta-amyloid in Alzheimer's disease.
