Feature
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Plight of the Untouchables
Stigma's largely unexplored effects on the health of people sufering from ailments ranging from AIDS to schizophrenia attracted much interest at a recent conference.
- Plants
Torn to Ribbons in the Desert
Botanists puzzle over one of Earth's oddest plants: the remarkably scraggly Welwitschia of southwestern Africa.
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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow?
Some scientists suggest that a better understanding of hair biology might not only lead to new treatments for people with too little (or too much) hair but also shed light on cancer, the growth and development of bodily organs, and other matters.
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Dolly Was Lucky
Scientists studying the data on animal cloning argue that cloning a person would be unsafe.
- Chemistry
Burned by Flame Retardants?
One particular class of flame retardants—polybrominated diphenyl ethers—is accumulating at alarming rates in the environment, taints human breast milk, and has toxic effects similar to the now-banned PCBs.
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Special Sleep Issue : PDF Download page
All files are saved as PDFs. Please download Adobe’s Acrobat Reader to view these files. Sleep Special : Complete PackageHigh Quality (17MB) | Low Quality (2MB) The Why of sleep (Tina Hesman Saey) / All Kinds of Tired (Susan Milius)High Quality (6.7MB) | Low Quality (1.1MB) Sleep gone awry (Laura Sanders)High Quality (2.5MB) | Low […]
- Astronomy
A Cosmic Crisis?
Astronomers appear to have a heavenly crisis on their hands, and it concerns material they can't even detect.
- Physics
Constant Changes
Evidence from the early universe that one of the so-called constants of nature, known as alpha, was once slightly smaller than it is today hints that the laws of physics themselves may vary over time and space.
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Joined at the Senses
As evidence accumulates for the existence of brain cells that handle many types of sensory information, some scientists challenge the popular notion that perception is grounded in five separate senses.
- Earth
Dust, the Thermostat
Analyses suggest that dust has profound, complex, and far-reaching effects on the planet's climate.
- Astronomy
When Branes Collide
A controversial new theory proposes that our universe existed as a cold, featureless void for eons, until a parallel universe floating through a hidden fifth dimension crashed into it, igniting the Big Bang.
