Feature
- Health & Medicine
Coming to Terms with Death
Some newly recognized forms of cell death might be harnessed to aid people with cancer and other serious diseases.
By Janet Raloff - Math
Surprisingly Square
Mathematicians take a fresh look at expressing numbers as the sums of squares.
- Physics
Pitching Science
A new computer model of baseball pitching helps give pitching robots humanlike abilities and may have enabled engineers to solve a half-century-old puzzle of baseball science.
By Peter Weiss - Paleontology
Beyond Bones
The forensic analysis of trace fossils such as footprints, nests, burrows, and even coprolites—fossilized feces—reveal subtle clues about ancient species, their behavior, and their environment.
By Sid Perkins -
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- Anthropology
Evolution’s Youth Movement
The fossils of ancient children may provide insights into the evolution of modern Homo sapiens.
By Bruce Bower -
- Astronomy
Captured on Camera: Are They Planets?
Studying several groups of nearby, newborn stars–many of which weren't known until a few years ago–researchers may soon obtain the first image of a bona fide planet orbiting a star other than our sun.
By Ron Cowen -
A More Perfect Union
Forsaking life in the outside world, endosymbiotic bacteria of some insects traded freedom and nutrients for life inside a cell.
- Chemistry
Cosmic Chemistry Gets Creative
By simulating extraterrestrial impacts on Earth, researchers are firing away at the question of how life started.
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